THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE    ENGLISH    PEOPLE    OVERSEAS 


VOLUME    II 

BRITISH    INDIA 

1 600- 1 828 


BY 

A.    WYATT    TILBY 


BOSTON   AND   NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON    MIFFLIN   COMPANY 

1912 


/  "1  i  ^ 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION 

The  whole  of  this  volume  has  been  carefully  revised  for 

reprinting.     In    the    first    part    the    alterations    are    only 

verbal ;   but  two  new  chapters — on  the  last  Maratha  War 

and   the    Ocean   Highway    of    Britain — have    been    added 

towards  the  end,    and  the   whole    of   the  last   Book   has 

been  recast  and  in  part  rewritten. 

A.  Wyatt  Tilby. 

How-Stean,  Cambridge  Road, 

Wimbledon,  September  1910. 


O*  »<»•  W  iLi-  '^J  <J 

fFAITOfULL 


CONTENTS 

Preface  to  the  Second  Edition    . 


PAGE 
V 


BOOK  VI 
THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  :  1498-1757 

CHAP. 

I.  The  Undiscovered  Orient 


II.  India 

HI.  The  English  East  India  Company  :  1600-1700 
IV.  The  Struggle  for  India  :  1700-57  . 


1 

4 
21 
40 


BOOK  VII 
THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  :  1757-1828 


I.  Clive  and  His  Policy:  1757-67 
II.  Warren  Hastings  :  1767-85 
iiL  Parliament  and  the  East  India  Company 
IV.  The  Forward  Policy  :  1798-1805     . 
v.  The  Last  Maratha  War  :  1805-28 


1772 


98 


77 

93 

133 

156 

179 


BOOK  VIII 

THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD -STRUGGLE  :  1789-1815 

I.  The  United  Kingdom 

II.  The  European  War  :  1793-1814 

III.  England  Triumphant  at  Sea  :  1793-1815 

IV.  The  Ocean  Highway  of  Britain 
V.  The  Final  Reckoning  :  1815 


205 
229 
239 
243 
280 


THE    ENGLISH    PEOPLE    OVERSEAS 

Book   VI 

THE  EUKOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA : 

1498-1757 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  UNDISCOVERED  ORIENT 

To  the  Grecian  and  Roman  world  Asia  was  little  more  than 
a  name.  The  cities  of  Asia  Minor  were  indeed  linked  with 
the  civihsed  states  that  had  sprung  up  around  the  Mediter- 
ranean. The  expedition  of  Alexander  the  Great  had  made 
a  temporary  bridge  between  East  and  West.  The  products 
of  China  were  transported  slowly  by  adventurous  merchants 
to  the  marts  of  Europe.  The  artistic  wares  of  India  were 
carried  equally  slowly  by  raft  and  boat  across  the  ocean  to 
Suez,  or  by  lagging  caravan  overland  through  Persia  to 
Damascus.  And  the  students  of  Athens  and  Rome  had  some 
rudimentary  ideas  of  oriental  geography,  which  their  maps 
and  manuscripts  have  preserved.  But  to  the  Greek  the 
world  was  Greece  and  barbarism ;  to  the  Roman  the 
world  was  Rome,  and  again  barbarism.  To  the  north  of 
the  Alps  they  knew  of  great  cold  lands  inhabited  by 
savages.  In  Africa,  to  the  south  of  the  few  Latin  cities 
that  modern  discoverers  have  disinterred,  they  knew  of 
great  hot  lands,  mostly  desert,  inhabited  by  wander- 
ing negro  tribes  that  were  hardly  human  to  the  cultured 
European.     To    the  west    the  Atlantic   rolled   unexplored, 

VOL.  II.  A 


2      THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

and   the   Pillars  of  Hercules  were  the  gates  of   the  world 
and  the  limit  of  human  knowledge.     To  the  east,  beyond 
Asia  Minor,  the  same  cloud  of  mystery  hung,  and  the  great 
continent  was  peopled  only  by  the  imagination  of  poets  and 
the    speculations    of    philosophers,    both    equally    fantastic. 
There  lay  the  civihsation  of  China,  where  a  unique  form  of 
human  life  was  evolved  ;   the  only  unchanging,  undestroyed 
civilisation  that  the  world  has  seen.     There  lay  Japan,  where 
institutions  curiously  analogous  to  those  of  feudal  Europe 
were  developed  centuries  before  knight  and  squire  and  lady 
stood  for  the  chivalry  of  the  West.     There  lay  Tibet,  the 
sacred  home  of  the  world's  greatest  rehgion ;    and  to  the 
south  lay  India,  whose  people,  though  still  Asiatics,  were  separ- 
ated from  the  rest  of  Asia  by  an  almost  impassable  barrier. 
But  the  empires,  the  arts,  the  Hteratures,  and  the  philo- 
/sophies  of  the  East  were  unknown  in  ancient  Europe  ;    and 
!  Asia  likewise  continued  its  tranquil,  passive  way,  ignorant 
I  of  the  subtle  Greek  and  the  forceful  Roman.     It  was  very 
gradually  that  knowledge  came.     European  travellers  pene- 
trated to  the  East  but  seldom,  and  those  who  returned  filled 
their  narratives  chiefly  with  accounts  of  '  the  anthropophagi 
and  men  whose   heads  do  grow  beneath   their   shoulders." 
;  The  Middle  Ages  saw  httle  change  from  older  times.     Only 
I  Marco  Polo  can  be  said  to  have  brought  back  any  real  in- 
I  formation  from  the  Orient ;  and  even  that  accurate  explorer 
/^  was    often    misinformed.     The    other    writers    on    Asiatic 
matters  are  sufficiently  characterised  by  Sir  John  Mande- 
ville,   the  best  known   to   English  readers,   and   the    most 
popular  author  of  his  time.^    But  his  book,  fuU  of  childish 
fables  and  astounding  adventures  as  it  is,  was   less  extra- 

^  Whoever  wrote  the  work  which  goes  by  the  name  of  the  worthy 
knight,  and  which  is  now  known  to  be  a  forgery,  he  was  at  least  an 
entertaining  liar.  I  can  hardly  say  so  much  for  the  other  travellers  of 
the  time,  who  are  generally  as  dull  as  they  are  inaccurate.  An  exception 
may  perhaps  be  made  in  favour  of  one  Friar  Jordan,  a  fourteenth-century 
author,  the  more  intimate  details  of  whose  descriptions  might  well  have 
caused  some  scandal  among  his  clerical  brethren. 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  3 

ordinary  than  others  on  the  same  subject.  Whoever  peruses 
the  lengthy  collections  of  mediaeval  voyages  that  repose  in 
our  libraries,  may  indeed  gain  much  curious  insight  into  the 
state  of  ignorance  that  then  prevailed  in  Europe  ;  but  he 
will  assuredly  find  Httle  trustworthy  information  about  Asia. 

Nevertheless  the  very  mystery  which  hung  over  the  Orient 
made  it  the  more  attractive.  Its  unknown  riches  were  the 
theme  of  many  a  poem  and  many  a  wild  romance.  The 
great  Musalman  kingdoms  of  the  East  were  regarded  with 
awe.  The  culture  of  Bagdad  was  justly  celebrated  in  the 
West.  Palestine  was  the  land  of  God,  the  Holy  Land ;  and 
when  it  fell  before  Islam,  it  became  the  one  desire  of  Christen- 
dom to  restore  the  sacred  soil  to  the  true  faith. 

Then  for  the  second  time  Europe  and  Asia  met  in  arms.  ' 
But  the  Crusaders  achieved  no  real  success  ;  and  two  cen- 
turies of  warfare  with  the  Saracens  left  the  opponents  as 
they  had  begun.  There  was  no  sign  whatever  of  any  European 
superiority  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  Christians  had  learnt  much 
from  the  opponents  whose  reUgion  they  hated,  and  whose 
strength  they  feared.  At  one  time,  in  fact,  it  seemed  that 
Europe  was  fated  to  fall  before  the  onward  march  of  Asia  ; 
and  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages  saw  the  Byzantine  Empire 
in  the  hands  of  the  Turks.  Constantinople  still  remains 
largely  oriental  in  character,  as  the  European  capital  of  an 
essentially  Asiatic  state ;  but  all  danger  of  another  Musal- 
man invasion  died  away  soon  after  its  fall  in  1453.  And  the 
first  successes  of  the  Portuguese  in  India  a  few  years  later 
were  the  beginning  of  European  dominion  in  the  East. 

Enmity  between  the  two  continents  was  instinctive  and 
inevitable,  as  a  matter  of  race  and  creed,  and  the  terror  that  'j 
springs  from  ignorance. 

We  look  back  to-day  on  the  history  of  Asia  as  on  a  volume 
in  an  unknown  tongue.  We  turn  its  pages  industriously,  but 
its  significance  we  fail  to  realise.  It  is  only  a  sentence  here 
and  there  that  we  can  understand.     To  the  world  at  large 


4  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

there  is  no  Asiatic  history,  save  in  the  conquests  of  alien 
nations  ;  to  the  student  there  is  also  no  Asiatic  history,  but 
in  another  sense.  The  field  is  too  great  for  generahsation. 
There  is  no  Asiatic  thought ;  there  is  no  Asiatic  character  ; 
there  is  no  Asiatic  rehgion.  The  differences  between  civiHsa- 
tions  are  matters  of  race,  not  of  continents  ;  and  there  is  no 
one  Asiatic  race.  There  is  as  much  distinction  between 
Chinaman  and  Hindu  as  between  aboriginal  American  and 
aboriginal  African.  There  can  be  no  Asiatic  synthesis. 
The  contrasts  of  Asia  are  not  the  contrasts  of  Europe.  The 
Spaniard  and  the  Saxon,  the  Teuton  and  the  Gaul  have 
developed  in  varying  directions,  but  they  have  many  points 
in  common  ;  the  radical  differences  between  Mongol  and 
Hindu  come  in  an  altogether  different  category. 


CHAPTER  n 
INDIA 

The  English  East  India  Company  was  founded  on  31st  Decem- 
ber 1600.  The  first  Dutch  voyages  to  the  East  had  begun 
a  few  years  before  ;  the  Dutch  East  India  Company  was 
founded  a  few  years  later.  The  first  French  East  India 
Company  was  formed  in  1604 ;  the  first  Danish  Company 
in  1612.  The  Portuguese  had  already  been  trading  regularly 
for  a  century  in  the  eastern  seas  ;  a  German  corporation  was 
likewise  formed  a  century  later.  And  between  these  six 
nations  of  Europe  the  prize  of  Indian  commerce  was  dis- 
puted for  over  two  hundred  years,  until  it  ultimately  rested 
in  the  hands  of  the  English. 

The  purpose  of  all  save  the  Portuguese  was  at  first  trade, 
not  empire.  The  Europeans  who  came  to  the  East  held 
generally  but  little  communication  with  the  natives.  The 
main  reason  for  the  existence  of  India,  in  the  eyes  of  the 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  5 

merchant,  was  the  enriching  of  the  West,  and  particularly 
of  his  own  country,  or  the  commercial  corporation  by  which 
he  was  employed.  The  standpoint  of  the  missionary,  if  higher, 
was  in  one  sense  scarcely  more  useful.  Looking  on  the  miUions 
of  Asiatics  with  pity,  as  lost  souls  doomed  to  eternal  tor- 
tures, he  laid  down  his  life  in  the  heroic  attempt  to  draw  a 
few  fish  into  the  net  of  salvation.^ 

But  merchant  and  missionary  aHke,  proud  in  the  superiority 
of  the  true  civilisation  and  the  true  rehgion,  had  Uttle  sym- 
pathy with  the  people  by  whom  they  were  surrounded.     They 
were  generally  ignorant  of  the  languages  of  India.    The  exist- 
ence of  a  hterature  and  philosophy  rivalling  those  of  Europe 
was  not  suspected ;    indeed  they  could  not  be,  guarded  as 
they  were  by  jealous  care  by  the  Indians  themselves.    And 
to  the  European,  the  religion  of  the  Hindu  was  not  merely 
false  ;  it  was  a  contrivance  of  the  devil  to  keep  poor  savages 
from  the  true  faith.   Christianity  recognised  in  Mohammedanism 
an  old  foe  ;  in  the  various  forms  of  Hinduism  it  saw  nothing 
but  a  debased  superstition.     The  modes  of  life  and  national 
customs  which  had  grown   slowly  during  thirty  centuries 
were  not  understood.     The  art  of  the  East,  which  dehghted 
to  decorate  with  lavish  hand  what  nature  had  so  lavishly 
given,    was   stigmatised   as   barbaric.     The   architecture   of  1 
India,  differing  fundamentally  aHke  from  the  sombre,  mystic  | 
Gothic  and  the  proudly  pure  renascence  styles  of  Europe,  / 
was  necessarily  condemned  by  critics  who  could  see  beauty  ( 
only  in  the  buildings  with  which  they  were  familiar.  \ 

To  men  such  as  these,  it  is  httle  wonder  that  the  East  \ 
remained  a  sealed  book.  And  the  Indians  themselves  kept| 
aloof  from  the  invader.     They,  too,  had  the  same  pride  of  i 

^  The  Portuguese  evangelists  follo\red  hard  on  the  steps  of  the 
explorers ;  but  the  first  English  missionaries  did  not  appear  in  India 
until  early  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Lord  Minto,  who  was  then 
Governor-General,  complained  that  they  denounced  'hell  fire  and  still 
hotter  fire '  against  all  who  were  not  of  their  way  of  thinking.  He  was 
forced  to  curb  their  activities  to  preserve  the  public  peace. 


6      THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEESEAS 

race  that  animated  the  European.  They,  too,  were  satisfied 
with  their  own  civilisation.  Trained  in  the  placid  school 
of  the  East  and  enervated  by  a  tropical  climate,  they  looked 
with  some  contempt  on  the  strenuous  life  of  the  Western, 
who  seemed  satisfied  to  spend  his  energies  solely  in  the  acquire- 
ment of  wealth. 

Rut  the  true  meaning  of  European  influence  in  India  can- 
not be  understood  without  looking  back  to  a  time  when  no 
Primeval  European  had  set  foot  there  ;  when  in  fact  there 
India.  were  no  Europeans  as  we  now  know  them  even 

in  Europe,  but  only  those  aboriginal  tribes  whose  rude 
remains  still  excite  the  curiosity  of  the  antiquary.  To  under- 
stand anything  of  the  social  and  religious  phenomena  that 
have  played  so  great  a  part  in  Indian  life  and  the  annals  of 
British  India,  it  is  necessary  to  turn  to  the  origin  of  Indian 
history,  some  two  thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era 
began. 

The  then  possessors  of  that  vast  peninsula  were  rough 
tribes,  who  were  still  in  the  nomadic  state  which  marks  man's 
first  advance  above  the  beasts  that  roam  in  the  forest.  Each 
preyed  on  the  other  ;  and  the  rude  instruments  of  primitive 
man  perhaps  equalised  the  superior  strength  of  the  animal. 
To  raise  the  corn  that  had  become  a  necessary  of  life,  a  method 
pathetic  in  its  simplicity  was  used.  The  ground  was  burnt 
bare,  seed  was  thrown  on  the  fertile  soil ;  and  a  good  crop 
soon  rewarded  the  exertions  of  the  primitive  farmer.  When 
a  further  supply  was  needed,  the  tribe  moved  on  to  a  fresh 
abode ;  the  same  process  gave  the  same  result ;  and  there 
could  be  little  reason  for  anxiety  in  that  favoured  land,  where 
nature  rendered  toil  almost  superfluous.  But  despite  the 
earthly  paradise  in  which  their  lot  had  fallen,  life  can  have 
had  few  attractions  to  the  ignorant  savages.  If  nature  had 
given  abundantly  she  had  also  cursed  with  no  sparing  hand. 
Existence  was  rendered  hazardous  by  wild  beasts,  by  serpents, 
by  venomous  insects,  and  by  the  deadly  swamps  engendered 


THE  EUEOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  7 

in  the  tropical  vegetation.  Exposed  to  peril  on  all  sides,  it 
is  little  wonder  that  the  aborigines  believed  the  world  to  be 
ruled  by  demons,  and  strove  to  propitiate  their  evil  deities 
by  sacrifice.  Remj9,ins  of  these  tribes  survive  to-day,  in  a 
state  scarcely  better  than  that  of  their  ancestors  four  thousand 
years  ago.  The  magnificent  land  they  inhabited  was  worthy 
of  better  men  than  these. 

It  is  only  with  the  immigration  of  the  northern  tribes  that 
Indian  history  begins,  as  European  history  begins,  however 
-dimly,  with  the  arrival  of  what  seems  to  have  ^^^ 
been  another  branch  of  the  same  great  family.  Northern 
We  can  form  some  idea  of  their  hfe  in  Central  ^^^  ^^^' 
Asia  before  the  great  exodus  ;  but  the  hfe  of  the  inferior 
race  they  supplanted  has  gone  into  silence.  There  is  no 
record  left  of  the  half-formed,  indistinct  conceptions  that 
stood  for  thoughts  to  the  first  human  dweller  in  India. 
There  is  no  echo  more  of  his  cry  of  anguish  as  he  saw  friend 
or  child  carried  ofi  by  beast  of  prey  or  mysterious  fever  ;  his 
terror,  his  ofierings,  his  occasional  wild  outbursts  of  mad- 
ness, when,  impatient  of  the  rehgious  fetters  his  ignorance 
had  forged,  he  felt  powerless  to  break  them  save  by  the 
murder  of  himself  and  others  ;  all  his  petty  Hfe  and  struggles 
have  vanished  before  the  onward  march  of  a  superior  race. 

The  earhest  known  invasion  of  India  fingers  on  the  border- 
land of  history  and  imagination.  What  reasons  impelled 
the  northerners  to  leave  their  old  settlements,  to  seek  a  path 
through  the  mountain  fastnesses  that  guard  the  north  of 
India,  what  vague  unrest  drove  them  to  find  new  homes, 
we  can  only  conjecture.  But  the  struggle  with  the  aboriginal 
Indian  tribes  still  fives  obscurely  in  the  hymns  of  the  sacred 
book  of  India,  the  Rig- Veda.  The  petitions  for  victory, 
the  songs  of  triumph  for  success  hardly  won,  the  lamenta- 
tions over  conu'ades  fallen  in  the  hour  of  peril,  tell  us 
something  of  that  primeval  race-conflict.  The  commentators 
of  a  later  age  have  allegorised  the  tales  of  battle  into  spiritual 


8      THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEESEAS 

combats  with  those  universal  powers  of  the  air  that  in  every 
religious  system  are  so  ready  to  lead  men  astray.  But  to 
the  poets  who  first  framed  their  hymns,  and  to  their  first 
hearers,  dwellers  both  in  a  land  not  yet  their  own,  threatened 
still  by  danger  from  man  and  beast,  they  must  have  appealed 
with  awesome  reahty. 

The  Punjab  was  the  first  land  occupied,  and  it  became  a 
basis  for  all  future  conquest.  Slowly  the  aborigines  were 
driven  further  and  further  downwards,  overborne  by  the 
greater  intelHgence  and  moral  force  of  the  newcomers.  After 
centuries  of  warfare,  now  grown  very  indistinct  to  a  world 
that  has  seen  the  same  tragedy  so  often  enacted,  the  invaders 
became  masters  of  India. 

But  a  change  had  occurred  in  the  course  of  the  struggle. 
The  aborigines  were  no  longer  driven  from  the  land.  In 
fact,  they  could  not  be  ;  for  they  had  no  further  retreat 
save  the  ocean,  and  they  dared  not  adventure  themselves 
on  what  must  have  seemed  the  wastes  of  infinity.  They 
submitted  perforce  to  the  law  of  conquest ;  submissive 
in  fact  but  not  in  wiU,  they  still  cherished  in  their  hearts 
a  confused  sense  of  injustice — a  feeling  that  ever  and  again 
has  broken  out  in  passionate  revolt  against  those  iron 
laws  of  nature  which  decree  the  subjection  of  the  lower  to 
the  higher  man,  the  stagnant  to  the  progressive. 

Conqueror  and  conquered  were  destined  to  live  together 
for  aU  time.  India  became  a  world  apart.  On  two  sides 
of  that  enormous  triangle  the  sea  cut  ofE  communication 
with  other  lands.  On  the  third,  the  great  mountain  ranges 
seemed  an  equally  strong  defence.  Seldom  indeed  was  the 
barrier  broken. 

It  is  from  the  Rig- Veda,  one  of  the  earliest  records  extant 

The  ReUgion  ^^  ^^y  branch  of  the  human  race,  that  we  can 

of  the  form  some  idea  of  the  men  who  first  conquered 

India.     To  them,  living  in  a  world  of  marvels, 

a  world  whose  course  had  not  yet  become  tedious  in  the 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  9 

passing  of  many  generations,  all  things  appeared  in  wonder- 
ment as  to  the  poet.  Looking  on  the  ever-changing,  ever- 
changeless  order  of  nature ;  trying,  as  each  generation  that 
is  not  bhnd  tries,  to  understand  something  of  the  hidden 
forces  that  animate  river,  mountain,  tree  or  storm  ;  still 
endeavouring  to  read  the  great  riddle,  the  why  and  where- 
fore of  human  Hfe  ;  reaching  later  the  half-despairing,  half- 
rejected  conclusion  of  its  purposelessness  ;  forming  uncon- 
sciously the  gods  for  their  future  generations  to  worship  : 
thus  in  the  Rig- Veda  hes  the  record  of  their  early  thought. 
It  is  the  key  with  which  to  unlock  the  ancient  history  of  India. 

The  invaders  of  India  had  no  settled  theological  system. 
The  stern  caste  customs  which  in  later  times  confined  learning 
to  the  priests  had  not  yet  arisen.  The  head  of  the  family,  as  in 
all  primitive  nations,  undertook  the  simple  rites  of  worship  for 
his  sons  and  dependants.  The  spirits  of  deceased  ancestors, 
who  were  believed  to  have  returned  beyond  the  mountains 
to  that  forsaken  fatherland  of  which  some  memory  remained, 
were  often  honoured.  Many  gods  were  evoked  in  prayer  ; 
it  was  natural  to  see  beneficent  deities  in  the  river  that  brought 
life  and  plenty  to  the  parched  land,  in  the  majestic  moun- 
tains that  were  a  protection  against  invasion,  in  the  spread- 
ing trees  that  offered  shade.  At  times,  indeed,  came  the 
higher  thought  that  the  entire  universe,  both  as  a  whole  and 
in  its  minutest  parts,  animate  or  inanimate,  was  pervaded 
and  governed  by  one  great  deity,  united  and  indivisible. 

But  that  idea  has  always  proved  too  abstract  and  perhaps 
too  lofty  for  the  crowd ;  and  while  in  India  it  has  been 
worked  out  to  its  logical  end  by  the  esoteric  schools,  the 
people  at  large  have  ever  clung  to  the  facile  creed  of  Brah- 
manism.  Its  many  gods  ofEer  the  worshipper  much  choice  ; 
its  spiritual  ideals  have  risen  and  fallen  with  the  life  of  the 
nation,  reaching  now  into  a  lofty  conception  of  humanity, 
and  anon  sinking  to  a  debasing  superstition  that  can  rever- 
ence the  self-inflicted  tortures  of  the  fakir. 


10     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

But  when  the  invaders  made  their  first  settlements  in 
India,  there  were  no  holy  places  that  could  draw,  as  now, 
their  thousands  of  pilgrims  yearly.  A  people  that  can  find 
its  gods  in  nature  needs  no  temples.  Before  the  develop- 
ment of  much  that  now  seems  most  characteristic  of  Indian 
life,  when  the  priests  had  not  yet  perfected  the  forms  of 
ritual,  and  caste  had  not  yet  crushed  the  individual,  each 
man  could  offer  from  his  own  house  the  sacrifice  that  pleased 
him  to  the  god  that  he  had  chosen  for  his  personal  protector. 
And  the  passionate  questionings  that  occur  and  recur  in  each 
book  of  the  Rig- Veda  show  how  far  the  poet-prophets  who 
formed  it  were  from  beHeving  they  had  solved  the  riddles 
that  surrounded  them.  '  The  stars  up  there  that  are  seen 
at  night,'  cries  one,  '  where  do  they  hide  in  the  day  ?  The 
sun,  not  hanging  on  to  anything,  not  made  fast,  how  comes 
it  that  he  falls  not  from  such  height  ?  By  whose  guidance 
does  he  travel  ?  Who  has  seen  it  ?  How  great  is  the  interval 
that  hes  between  the  dawns  that  have  arisen  and  those  which 
are  yet  to  arise  ?  Of  dawn  and  night,  which  of  them  is  the 
older  and  which  the  younger  ?  Who  knows,  0  ye  sages  ? 
They  carry  between  them  all  that  exists,  revolving  on  one 
wheel.  Where  is  the  sun  now  ?  Who  knows  it  ?  Over 
which  heaven  do  his  rays  extend  ?  What,  indeed,  was  the 
wood,  what  the  tree,  out  of  which  they  fashioned  the  heaven 
and  the  earth  ?  These  two  stand  fast  and  grow  not  old 
for  ever,  while  many  days  and  mornings  pass  away.  Where 
is  the  life,  the  blood,  the  self  of  the  universe  ?  Who  went  to 
ask  of  any  who  knew  ?  Not  laiowing,  I  go  to  ask  of  those  who 
know,  that  I  may  know,  I  who  do  not  know  :  he  who  stretched 
apart  and  estabHshed  the  six  worlds  in  the  form  of  the  un- 
born, did  he  also  establish  the  seventh  ?  ' 

Such  deep  queries,  now  high  in  hope,  at  times  give  way  to 
despair.  '  You  will  never  behold  him  who  gave  birth  to 
these  things  :  something  else  it  is  that  appears  among  you. 
Wrapped  in  darkness  and  stammering,  wander  through  hfe 


THE  EUKOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  11 

the  singers  of  liymns/  The  unread  riddle  reaches  across  the 
gulf  of  time  ;  the  helplessness  of  the  first  thinkers  grappling 
with  the  unseen  is  echoed  by  our  own.  '  Nor  aught  nor 
aught  existed  then  :  not  the  aerial  space,  nor  heaven's  bright 
woof  above.  What  covered  all  ?  Where  rested  all  ?  Was 
it  water,  the  profound  abyss  ?  Death  was  not  then,  nor 
immobiHty  ;  there  was  no  difference  of  day  and  night.  That 
One  breathed  breathless  in  Itself :  and  there  was  nothing 
other  than  It.  In  the  beginning  there  was  darkness  in  dark- 
ness enfolded,  all  was  undistinguishable  water.  That  One 
which  lay  in  the  empty  space,  wrapped  in  nothingness,  was 
developed  by  the  power  of  heat.  Desire  first  arose  in  It — 
that  was  the  primeval  germ  of  mind,  which  poets,  searching 
with  their  intellects,  discovered  in  their  hearts  to  be  the  bond 
between  Being  and  Not-Being.  The  ray  of  light  which 
stretched  across  these  worlds,  did  it  come  from  below  or  from 
above  ?  Then  seeds  were  sown  and  mighty  forces  arose. 
Nature  beneath  and  Power  and  Will  above.' 

But  the  singer  knows  no  more  ;  and  the  enigma  that  can- 
not be  answered  ends  again  in  despair.  '  Who  indeed  knows  ? 
Who  proclaimed  it  here ;  whence,  whence  this  creation  was 
produced  ?  The  gods  were  later  than  its  production — who 
knows  whence  it  sprang  ?  He  from  whom  the  creation 
sprang,  whether  He  made  it  or  not,  the  All-Seer  in  the  highest 
heaven.  He  knows  it  —  or  He  does  not.'  The  poet  stops 
abruptly.  The  terrible  melancholy  that  could  doubt  whether 
the  great  author  of  all  Himself  understood  the  work  He 
had  made  overwhelmed  belief  in  the  minor  powers  to 
which  man  had  learnt  to  cling.  Sun,  moon,  and  river 
remained  the  deities  of  the  people ;  but  the  thinker, 
striving  steadfastly  for  the  origin  of  life  itself,  saw  the 
pettiness  of  the  ideals  that  served  the  crowd.  In  baffled 
ignorance  he  flung  away  all  that  before  had  satisfied ; 
and  in  one  great  negative  turned  hopeless  from  a  problem 
inexplicable  to  the  sons  of  men. 


12  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

Such  miglit  be  the  higher  thoughts  of  the  inspired  singer ; 
but  the  people  required  a  positive  faith  that  allowed  of  spiritual 
peace.  The  poet  himself  in  quieter  moments  returned  to 
the  older,  lesser  gods  of  nature ;  and  could  rejoice  in  the 
beauty  of  form  and  colour  that  they  renewed  every  day. 
The  sun  was  the  impassioned  wooer  of  the  dawn ;  the 
dawn  a  timid  maiden  fleeing  from  the  embrace  of  a  too 
ardent  lover.  The  sun  again  was  the  great  protector  and 
father,  rising  in  might  to  visit  and  comfort  his  children  after 
the  terrors  of  darkness,  conquering  his  enemies  as  he  rose 
higher,  at  last  to  sink  in  triumph,  or  it  might  be,  in  clouds 
of  defeat  as  his  allotted  time  drew  near.  Agni,  god  of  fire, 
was  the  mysterious  mortal  brother  of  man,  whose  home  was 
the  sun,  the  water  and  the  plants,  and  whose  parents  were 
two  pieces  of  wood  that  he  devoured  at  his  birth. 

But  from  the  plea  of  remorseful  agony  uttered  when  the 
unsolved  mystery  ever  returned  to  perplex — '  Have  mercy, 
Almighty,  have  mercy ;  let  me  not  yet  enter  into  the  house 
of  clay ;  have  mercy,  Almighty,  have  mercy,'  cries  the 
poet — one  sees  dimly  that  the  old  faith  was  no  longer 
sufficient.  Symbols  that  had  been  accepted  without  demur 
in  infancy  became  inadequate  in  the  light  of  fuller  knowledge. 
And  the  nation  lay  in  danger  as  the  upheaval  of  thought  be- 
came more  marked.  The  old  road  was  henceforth  impossible  ; 
but  whither  led  the  new  ?  Half -unconsciously  and  perhaps 
not  understanding  the  greatness  of  the  thoughts  working  in 
him,  the  poet  sees  the  change.  '  I  now  say  farewell  to  the 
father,  the  Asura  ;  I  go  from  him  to  whom  no  sacrifices  are 
ofiered  to  him  to  whom  men  sacrifice.  In  choosing  Indra,  I 
give  up  the  father,  though  I  have  hved  many  years  in  friend- 
ship with  him.  Agni,  Varuna,  and  Soma  must  give  way, 
the  power  goes  to  another  :  I  see  it  come.'  Encompassed 
wth  mysteries,  seeking  the  unknown  God,  discarding  the  old 
creed  as  it  became  impossible,  but  still  filled  with  sadness  at 
the  loss  of  a  lifelong  friend,  the  poets  groped  towards  the  new. 


THE  EUEOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  13 

real  truth  that  should  bring  peace  to  themselves  and  to  their 
people. 

In  this  change  of  beUef  we  first  mark  the  change  of  hfe  that 
has  made  India  what  it  is.  With  the  settlement  of  the  nation 
the  time  had  ceased  when  each  family  was  all- 

.  TII6  C3.St6 

sufficing  and  independent.  The  speciaUsation  of 
labour  had  begun  ;  and  with  the  separation  of  man  from 
man  as  their  work  set  them  in  different  stations  in  the  eyes  of 
the  world  lay  the  first  sign  of  the  caste.  That  system  sprang 
from  the  same  root  that  brought  forth  mediaeval  feudalism 
in  Europe  ;  from  the  absolute  necessity  of  an  orderly  succes- 
sion of  degrees  in  the  general  working  of  the  state.  The 
first  castes  rose  naturally  in  India,  as  the  organisation  of 
the  people  became  more  complex ;  and  these  primitive 
social  divisions  were  such  as  can  be  seen  at  some  period  in 
almost  every  country. 

In  the  great  Brahmanic  code,  the  Laws  of  Manu  of  a  later 
date,  the  principles  regulating  the  castes  are  laid  down.  '  To 
Brahmans  (the  priests)  he  (Brahma)  assigned  teaching  and 
studying  the  Veda,  sacrificing  for  their  own  benefit ;  for 
others,  the  giving  and  accepting  of  abns.  The  Kshatriya 
(warrior)  he  commanded  to  protect  the  people,  to  bestow 
gifts,  to  ofier  sacrifice,  to  study  the  Veda,  and  to  abstain 
from  attaching  himself  to  sensual  pleasure.  To  Vaishya 
(the  working  class)  to  tend  cattle,  to  bestow  gifts,  to  offer 
sacrifices,  to  study  the  Veda,  to  trade,  to  lend  money,  and 
to  cultivate  land.  One  occupation  the  Lord  prescribed  to 
the  Shudra,  to  serve  meekly  the  other  three  castes."  In 
these  few  words  we  find  the  basis  on  which  India  has  been 
founded,  and  on  which  its  social  scheme  of  life  has  been 
governed  for  more  than  twenty  centuries.  While  the  less 
steadfast  western  world  has  its  customs  which  vary  with 
every  generation  and  with  every  kingdom,  its  philosophers 
who  represent  every  shade  of  thought  from  anarchy  to 
despotism,  its  empires  that  have  been  founded  on  rehgion, 


14     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

on  freedom,  on  revolution,  or  on  mere  brute  force  :  the 
unchanging  course  of  life  in  India  has  flowed  on  from  genera- 
tion to  generation  through  the  same  channels.  The  brief 
revolt  of  Buddha  appears  now  but  as  an  episode  in  such 
stupendous  annals :  and  save  for  the  elaboration  of  the 
system,  the  world  has  not  altered  in  the  East,  from  the  age 
of  Socrates  to  the  age  of  Herbert  Spencer. 

'  The  duty  of  Brahmans  is  to  teach  and  to  study  the  Veda,' 
declares  the  code.  The  sacred  books  were  collected  and 
systematised  ;  the  worship  which  each  man  had  freely  given 
as  his  heart  moved  him  was  now  decked  with  an  elaborate 
ritual,  performed  only  by  professional  priests.  They  taught, 
they  investigated  science  and  doctrine  ;  they  made  the  laws  ; 
in  their  caste  was  concentrated  the  intellectual  hfe  of  the  land. 
They  were  not  backward  in  asserting  their  power  in  the  great 
code  of  Manu,  which  they  originated.  '  A  Brahman  coming 
into  existence  is  born  as  the  highest  on  earth,  the  lord  of  all 
created  beings,  for  the  protection  of  the  treasury  of  the  law. 
Whatever  exists  in  the  world  is  the  property  of  the  Brahman  ; 
on  account  of  the  excellence  of  his  origin,  the  Brahman  is 
indeed  entitled  to  it  all.  The  Brahman  eats  but  his  own 
food,  wears  but  his  own  apparel,  bestows  but  his  own  in  alms  ; 
other  mortals  subsist  but  through  the  benevolence  of  the 
Brahman.  Know  that  a  Brahman  of  ten  years  and  a  Ksha- 
triya  of  a  hundred  years  stand  to  each  other  in  the  relation 
of  father  and  son  ;  but  between  these  two  the  Brahman  is 
the  father.  A  Brahman,  be  he  ignorant  or  learned,  is  a  great 
divinity.  Though  Brahmans  employ  themselves  in  all  kinds 
of  mean  occupations,  they  must  be  honoured  in  every  way  : 
for  each  of  them  is  a  very  great  deity.'  Such  was  the 
orthodox  doctrine,  the  ideal  of  unlimited  power ;  but  it 
was  modified  as  necessity  occasionally  dictated.  '  Ksha- 
triyas  prosper  not  without  Brahmans  ;  Brahmans  prosper 
not  without  Kshatriyas.  Brahmans  and  Kshatriyas,  being 
closely  united,  prosper  both  in  this  world  and  the  next.'    An 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  15 

alliance  between  moral  and  material  force  seems  sometimes 
to  have  been  necessary  ;  nor  is  it  only  in  the  East  that  the 
priests  and  warriors  have  found  interests  in  common. 

The  third  class,  the  Vaishya,  were  the  bulk  of  the  people. 
Commerce  and  agriculture  were  in  their  hands  :  the  day- 
labour,  honourable,  and  in  those  fertile  territories  then  not 
hard,  belonged  to  them.  But  the  division  between  trade 
and  trade,  which  developed  with  appaUing  nicety  in  after 
centuries  until  every  occupation  to  the  very  thieves  and 
beggars  formed  a  caste,  had  not  yet  taken  place.  The 
later  and  more  minute  classification,  logically  sequent  as  it 
was  on  the  first  division  in  the  Laws  of  Manu,  was  part  of 
the  order-loving  method  to  which  India  clung.  The  trade 
guilds  of  mediseval  Europe,  the  trade  unions  of  modern 
industrial  Hfe,  offer  but  a  faint  comparison  to  the  hereditary 
castes  of  India.  Even  the  Venetian  glass-blowers,  the  most 
exclusive  of  all  Western  societies,  must  hide  its  diminished 
head  before  the  least  important  of  its  Hindu  rivals. 

The  fourth  caste  that  the  great  code  recognised  was  the 
Shudra.  '  One  occupation  the  Lord  prescribed  to  the  Shudra 
— to  serve  meekly  the  other  three  castes.'  Strictly  speaking, 
they  were  of  no  caste.  They  had  no  rights.  Their  highest 
aspiration  could  be  but  to  serve  their  superiors.  All  others 
were  twice  born,  as  the  mystic  doctrine  of  the  East  laid  down  : 
they  alone  were  not.  Esteemed  lower  than  the  domestic 
animals  which  the  Hindu  of  caste  held  as  friends,  as  pro- 
tectors, and  later  as  gods,  the  casteless  man  stood  without 
the  pale  of  humanity.  None  of  the  proud  twice-born  would 
hold  communication  with  the  Shudra.  The  very  drinking- 
vessel  from  which  he  quenched  his  thirst  was  defiled.  His 
touch  was  contamination.  He  alone,  of  all  the  things  that 
God  had  made,  was  accursed.  The  twice-born  lost  his  caste 
if  he  had  sinned  ;  he  could  be  degraded  to  the  level  of  the 
Shudra  ;  but  never  could  Shudra  rise  from  slavery  and  con- 
tempt.    The  sadness  of  their  fate  and  the  drear  monotony 


16     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

of  their  life  runs  like  a  dark  thread  of  tragedy  through  all  the 
history  of  India.  To  be  casteless  is  to  be  hopeless.  But  it  is 
not  in  the  Hterature  of  the  land  that  we  may  look  for  their 
cry  of  misery,  uttered  or  unuttered,  that  went  up  from 
generation  to  generation.  Learning  lay  in  the  hands  of 
the  Brahmans  alone ;  and  they,  busied  with  their  schemes 
of  a  perfect  hfe  and  an  ideal  philosophy,  had  no  more 
interest  in  the  Shudra  than  a  modern  sweater  or  rack-rent 
proprietor  has  in  the  wretched  beings  from  whom  he  gains 
his  wealth. 

It  was  as  a  protest  against  this  injustice,  and  against  the 
growing  ceremonialism  of  rehgion  and  the  power  of  the  priest- 
hood, that  Buddhism  found  its  strength.  The 
hfe  of  Buddha  throws  the  soft  hght  of  mercy 
over  the  gloomy  record  of  the  time ;  and  later  generations, 
with  a  loving  recognition  of  the  human  sympathy  that  he 
helped  to  bring  back  to  earth,  have  surrounded  his  career 
with  poetic  legends  that  still  teach  their  own  lesson. 

Siddartha,  the  founder  of  Buddhism,  was  a  king's  son. 
He  was  born  close  to  Nepal,  in  Northern  India,  where  the 
snowy  bosoms  of  the  Himalayas  seem  to  touch  the  skies. 
Prodigies  attended  his  birth  ;  and  all  the  portents  declared 
that  the  new  prince  should  be  a  great  conqueror.  This 
was  perhaps  no  more  than  was  proclaimed  by  courtiers 
as  the  future  lot  of  every  prince  of  every  royal  house  ; 
but  the  father  of  Siddartha  had  visions  of  prostrate  peoples 
and  captive  monarchs  that  should  bow  before  his  son's 
strong  arm.  Later  ages  have  remembered  in  another  way 
the  victory  of  the  Prince  of  the  Great  Renunciation. 

As  he  grew,  all  that  the  heart  of  man  could  desire  was 
his.  Sensual  luxury  and  refined  art,  the  most  attractive 
that  the  age  could  boast,  were  poured  out  before  him. 
But  he  was  not  happy.  The  palace  seemed  a  prison  ;  and 
a  vague  consciousness  of  misery  without,  in  the  unknown 
world  that  lay  around,  troubled  the  gentle  heart. 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  17 

The  beauty  of  the  legend  that  teUs  of  his  discovery  of 
pain  and  suffering  has  immortahsed  it.  When  the  king 
his  father  permitted  him  to  come  forth  to  see  his  subjects, 
a  proclamation  was  made  that  all  should  be  happiness  among 
the  people.  The  bhnd,  the  old,  the  maimed,  the  halt 
and  lame  must  remain  within ;  only  the  young  and  hale 
might  come  to  rejoice  before  the  prince  who  honoured 
them. 

The  day  arrived :  and  as  Siddartha  rode  in  triumph,  all 
indeed  seemed  bright.  He  too  rejoiced ;  the  misgivings 
that  had  troubled  him  faded.  He  had  watched  the  per- 
petual war  of  beast  against  beast  in  jungle,  lake,  or  forest ; 
and  had  wondered  as  he  saw  the  cruelty  of  slaughter  hidden 
beneath  the  fair  face  of  nature.  But  to  mankind  at  least 
the  gods  had  granted  happiness. 

He  was  quickly  undeceived  as  an  aged  cripple  groped  his 
way  across  the  street,  begging  an  alms.  The  misery  that 
could  not  be  hid  woke  the  prince  from  his  dream  of  pleasure. 
He  returned  home  sick  at  heart.  '  I  have  seen  that  I  did 
not  think  to  see.'  He  could  not  be  comforted  as  he  thought 
of  the  sad  fate  that  drew  weak  and  strong  ahke  to  the  same 
dark  ending. 

The  very  joy  that  his  coming  had  brought  to  the  people 
was  not  a  part  of  their  daily  Hfe  ;  and  he  determined  to  see 
that  Ufe  as  it  was  lived  on  ordinary  days,  when  no  royal 
proclamation  bade  them  rejoice.  He  wandered  disguised 
and  unknown  through  the  city,  seeing  the  common  round 
of  joy  and  sorrow  that  changes  little  from  one  generation 
to  another.  The  pains  of  birth,  the  pains  of  death,  the  many 
pains  that  He  between,  were  spread  before  the  prince  ;  and 
more  saddened  than  before,  the  tranquil  ease  of  his  own 
existence  appealed  no  longer  to  him.  The  wife  he  had 
chosen,  the  luxury  that  surrounded  him,  brought  no  comfort 
to  the  prince  who  thought  ever  of  the  misery  without  the 
palace. 

VOL.  II.  B 


18     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

It  was  then  that  Siddartha  renounced  the  glory  to  which 
he  had  been  born,  and  wandered  forth  to  beg  his  bread  with 
the  meanest ;  hoping  to  find  in  meditation  some  solution  of 
the  dark  mystery  of  Hfe.  Six  years  he  pondered ;  but  no 
clue  came  to  the  riddle  of  the  waste,  the  futihty  of  Ufe  itself, 
so  constant  in  its  misery,  so  transient  in  its  joy. 

The  legends  tell  of  the  deep  humility,  the  broad  humanity 
he  showed.  A  casteless  man  lamented  that  he  could  not 
give  him  milk  ;  the  touch  of  the  Shudra  was  accursed.  The 
reply  was  fuU  of  pity  for  the  slave  that  his  fathers  had  made. 
'  Pity  and  need  make  all  flesh  kin.  There  is  no  caste  in 
blood.  Who  doeth  right  deeds  is  twice-born,  and  who  doeth 
ill  deeds  vile." 

The  doctrine  of  caste  that  was  eating  Hke  a  canker  into 
Indian  Hfe  was  confronted  by  the  doctrine  of  equaHty,  of  a 
caste  that  could  only  be  recognised  as  a  man's  work  was 
good  or  evil.  Full  of  pity  for  the  weak,  denouncing  those 
whose  wrong  causes  sufiering,  Siddartha  found  in  the 
mystical  doctrine  of  transmigration,  of  continual  promo- 
tion or  degradation  in  each  successive  existence,  the  solution 
of  his  problem  :  until,  as  Hfe  after  hfe  was  passed  on  higher 
and  higher  plane,  the  perfect  soul  that  had  struggled  free 
from  the  world's  shadows  could  find  peace  at  last  in  absorp- 
tion with  the  infinite  Nirvana. 

Such  principles  as  these  struck  at  the  heart  of  Brahmanism. 
The  struggle  between  the  two  rehgions  became  long  and 
ardent.  The  priests  of  the  older  dispensation  were  forced 
to  adopt  some  of  the  tenets  of  their  rivals  ;  and  the  merciful 
humanity  of  the  great  prince  softened  a  httle  for  a  time  the 
rigid  doctrines  that  had  enslaved  India.  But  the  compro- 
mise proved  fatal  to  Buddhism,  as  it  weakened  the  popular 
resistance  to  Brahmanism  ;  and  it  passed  away  from  the  land 
of  its  birth  to  other  parts  of  Asia,  where  the  gentle  creed  has 
brought  peace  to  millions,  as  Buddhism  still  remains  numeri- 
cally the  greatest  of  the  religions  of  mankind. 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  19 

But  whatever  relief  it  brought  to  China  and  Japan,  in 
India  the  iron  bands  of  caste  again  descended  on  the  Hindus. 
The  growth  of  observances  and  ceremonies  increased  un- 
checked, as  ignorance  and  superstition  descended  on  the 
people  ;  and  the  terrible  rite  of  widow-burning,  introduced 
through  a  mistaken  reading  of  a  text  in  the  Rig- Veda,  is  but 
the  most  notorious  instance  of  many  which  might  be 
adduced  to  show  the  degradation  of  India. 

In  the  older  days,  the  Upanishad,  the  books  of  Brahmanical 
philosophy,  had  indicated  how  high  the  ideal  of  life  could 
rise.  Certain  sacramental  rites  ushered  a  new-  xhe 
born  son  into  the  world.  At  any  time  between  upanishad. 
seven  and  eleven  years  of  age,  when  the  little  mind- 
atom  had  enlarged  itself  somewhat  above  mere  wonder- 
ment, and  had  already  accumulated  the  first  few  ele- 
mentary facts  of  life,  the  child  was  sent  from  home  to  be 
educated.  Returning  after  some  twelve  years,  his  own  true 
life  began.  He  was  married ;  and  with  ritual  and  sacri- 
fice and  such  daily  work  as  was  necessary,  the  wedded  life 
passed  as  happily  as  might  be.  With  the  birth  of  the  first 
grandchild  his  duty  to  the  world  was  done.  He  retired  into 
the  forest  to  a  contemplative  life  that  was  but  a  prepara- 
tion for  his  end.  Ritual  and  ceremony  for  him  were  no  more  ; 
he  had  passed  through  the  stage  when  they  were  necessary  : 
and  in  the  more  advanced  philosophy  to  which  he  had 
attained,  their  utter  uselessness  and  even  detrimental  effect 
were  recognised. 

The  last  retirement  was  still  admitted  by  the  Laws  of 
Manu ;  but  as  the  Hindus  sank  from  the  former  standard 
it  was  afterwards  aboUshed ;  and  there  is  a  world  of  sig- 
nificance in  the  fact.  The  old  ideals  were  slowly  pass- 
ing ;  and  to  replace  them,  came  the  worship  of  cow  and 
monkey. 

In  all  but  material  arts  the  nation  seemed  dead.  Their 
craftsmen  could  stiU  weave  the  wonderful  fabrics  that  moved 


20     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

the  astonisliment  and  envy  of  Europe.    Palace  after  palace 

was  built  with  oriental  profusion  ;  the  workers  toiled 
lovingly  then  as  now,  at  dainty  trifles  still  inimitable  by  the 
rougher  hand  of  the  West.  But  no  new  teacher  came,  whose 
higher  thoughts  should  lead  to  new  endeavours  for  the  holy 
life ;  no  great  poet  lived  again  among  the  people,  to  echo 
back  new  Vedas  to  his  brethren  of  the  past ;  no  second 
Buddha  came,  when  the  message  of  the  first  had  been  driven 
out  to  other  lands. 

And  meanwhile  the  distinction  between  esoteric  and 
exoteric,  that  has  more  or  less  characterised  all  rehgions, 
but  especially  those  of  the  East,  became  more  strongly 
marked.  The  Brahman,  proud  of  his  creed,  his  philosophy, 
his  purity,  hved  apart ;  taking  Httle  thought  for  those  whom 
he  no  longer  recognised  as  fellow-men.  The  Kshatriya,  con- 
fident in  their  privileges  as  warriors,  passed  their  days  also  ; 
and  when  the  hour  of  reckoning  came,  they  were  weighed 
in  the  balance  and  found  wanting.  For  the  Mughal  and 
Mohammedan  descended  on  India,  and  the  stronger  sons 
of  war  founded  their  kingdom  among  a  nation  they  dispos- 
sessed and  despised,  even  as  the  Hindus  had  conquered  and 
despised  those  whom  they  had  found  in  the  land  centuries 
before. 

Still,  however,  the  life  of  the  village  communities  went  on 
much  as  of  old.  The  tides  of  war  and  victory  rolled  past 
and  were  exhausted  in  the  struggle  ;  but  famine,  plague, 
and  savage  beast  were  worse  enemies,  and  brought  more 
terror  to  the  lower  castes.  Saint  or  pilgrim  came  or 
went ;  fakir  and  devotee  begged  and  showed  their  useless 
wounds ;  generation  after  generation  of  caste  and  no-caste 
travelled  ahke  into  the  great  unknown  ;  and  the  tradition 
of  the  blessed  abode  behind  the  northern  mountains  from 
which  their  ancestors  had  sprung  yet  lingered  among  the 
people. 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  21 

CHAPTER  III 

THE  ENGLISH  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY  :    1600-1700 1 

Although  there  is  an  untrustworthy  tradition  that  an 
Enghshman  travelled  to  the  Far  East  early  in  the  ninth 
century,  the  first  of  our  countrymen  who  is  known  actually 
to  have  set  foot  in  India,  is  one  Thomas  Stevens,  a  Jesuit 
who  landed  at  the  Portuguese  settlement  of  Goa  in  the  year 
1579.  The  letters  which  he  sent  home  contained  Uttle  that 
was  remarkable,  or  that  could  not  have  been  gathered  from 
other  sources  ;  but  they  added  to  the  lively  interest  that 
was  already  felt  among  all  classes  as  to  the  possibihty  of 
opening  up  commercial  relations  with  Asia.  But  indeed 
all  the  attempts  that  had  been  made  by  Englishmen  of  recent 
years  to  find  both  the  North-East  and  North- West  passages 
had  been  in  order  to  open  up  trade  with  the  Orient,  and  the 
companies  which  had  promoted  those  enterprises  hoped  to 
reach  India  themselves  in  due  course. 

Four  years  after  Stevens  landed  in  India,  three  Enghsh 
merchants  made  their  way  overland  to  the  East ;    but  on 

^  Authorities. — There  is  no  history  of  the  East  India  Company  which 
can  be  regarded  as  authoritative,  but  most  of  its  transactions  are  pre- 
served at  the  India  Office  in  London,  from  which  an  abstract  has  been 
made  by  Hunter.  The  enormous  number  of  pamphlets  published  in 
England,  both  condemning  and  defending  the  Company,  which  are 
collected  at  the  British  Museum  and  the  Guildhall  Library,  are  of 
interest,  and  frequently  throw  much  light  on  the  conduct  of  affairs  by 
the  directors.  The  official  series  of  Indian  records  and  Indian  texts  now 
being  published  promise  to  be  of  great  value.  Of  the  regular  historians, 
Orme  and  Mill  are  good  representatives  of  the  older  school ;  but  every 
other  writer  has  been  superseded  by  the  monumental  works  of  Sir  W. 
Hunter.  I  follow  him  on  almost  every  occasion  in  preference  to  all  other 
authorities :  practically  the  only  noteworthy  point,  indeed,  on  which  I 
have  ventured  to  differ  from  him  was  in  the  last  chapter,  where  I 
have  used  the  terra  '  northern  invaders  '  instead  of  Aryan.  It  is  a  much 
debated  problem  whether  philology  alone  can  be  considered  a  safe  guide 
to  racial  origin,  and  many  now  incline  to  doubt  whether  the  early  union 
of  the  European  and  Indian  peoples  can  be  assumed,  until  at  least 
additional  corroborative  evidence  in  other  branches  of  science  is  adduced. 


22     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

arrival  at  Goa  they  were  imprisoned  by  the  Portuguese, 
and  nothing  came  of  their  enterprise,  save  that  one  of  their 
number  eventually  entered  the  court  service  of  the  Great 
Mughal. 

The  beginning  of  the  direct  commercial  connection  between 
England  and  the  Orient  twenty  years  later  was  curiously 
The  East  simple.  Towards  the  close  of  the  reign  of 
India  Com-  Elizabeth  the  Dutch  traders  raised  the  price 
pany,  1599.  ^^  pepper  from  three  to  eight  shillings  a  pound. 
Mainly  in  consequence  of  this  extortionate  increase,  though 
perhaps  with  some  touch  of  romance  still  stirring  in  the 
hearts  of  the  worthy  citizens,  the  Lord  Mayor  and 
merchants  of  London  met  on  22nd  September  1599,  at 
Founders  Hall,  Lothbury,  and  there  agreed  '  with  their  own 
hands  to  venture  in  the  pretended  voyage  to  the  East  Indies, 
the  which  it  may  please  the  Lord  to  prosper.'  Under  their 
auspices,  an  association  was  formed  on  31st  December  1600, 
with  the  title  of  '  The  Governor  and  Company  of  Merchants 
in  London  trading  to  the  East  Indies.'  The  association  had 
125  shareholders  and  a  capital  of  £70,000  ;  and  the  charter 
gave  it  power  to  export  £30,000  in  bulHon,  the  same  to  be 
returned  at  the  end  of  the  voyage.  The  charter  of  incorpora- 
tion was  for  fifteen  years. 

On  2nd  April  1601  the  first  fleet  for  the  East  sailed  from 
London,  laden  with  £28,742  in  bullion,  and  Enghsh  goods 
The  First  worth  £6860,  such  as  glass,  cutlery,  and  hides. 
Voyage.  Particulars  of  the  vessels  have  been  preserved 
and  run  as  follows  : — 

Red  Dragon,  600  tons,  James  Lancaster,  master,  with  202 
men. 

Hector,  300  tons,  James  Middleton,  master,  with  108  men. 

Ascension,  260  tons,  WilHam  Brand,  master,  with  82  men. 

Susan,  240  tons,  John  Heywood,  master,  with  88  men. 

Guest,  130  tons,  accompanying  the  fleet  as  victualler. 

The  pilot  was  John  Davis. 


THE  EUKOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  23 

The  fleet  arrived  at  Sumatra  without  incident ;  a  trading- 
liouse  was  founded  at  Bantam,  and  commercial  relations 
were  established  with  the  king  of  Achin. 

On  the  return  of  their  vessels  in  1603,  with  a  cargo  of 
peppers  and  rich  spices  from  the  Moluccas,  Banda,  Ambojma, 
Surtatra,  and  Bantam,  the  promoters  of  the  enterprise  reahsed 
a  profit  of  ninety-five  per  cent. 

There  was  thus  nothing  to  distinguish  the  East  India 
Compmy  from  the  other  corporations  which  had  been  formed 
in  recent  years  for  the  purpose  of  trading  abroad  ;  the  Russia 
Company,  the  Turkey  Company,  and  the  Morocco  Company 
stood  on  the  same  footing,  and  might  anticipate  as  good  results. 
There  was  certainly  nothing  to  indicate  that  the  company 
which  was  formed  on  the  last  day  of  the  sixteenth  century 
would  out-distance  all  its  competitors,  EngUsh  and  foreign, 
and  at  length  develop  into  an  empire. 

But  the  first  decade  of  the  East  India  Company  was 
smooth  and  prosperous,  and  the  merchants  of  the  time 
doubtless  congratulated  themselves  on  their  success,  as  they 
gossiped  on  the  Exchange,  or  counted  their  gains  in  the 
offices  of  Cheapside  and  Gresham  Street. 

Success  naturally  generated  opposition  and  rivalry  at  home. 
There  were  some  who  were  jealous  of  the  Company ;    there 
were   others   who   beheved  that   the   temporary   The 
export  of  bulHon  impoverished  the  home  country  ;    ofthe^*^  ^ 
there  were  those  who  could  not  see  any  advan-    company, 
tage  in  either  trade  or  communication  with  foreign  lands. 
But  the  East  India  Company  proved  singularly  well  quahfied 
to  defend  itself.     One  or  two  extracts  from  the  pamphlets 
pubhshed  under  its  direction  will  show  that  it  left  no  stone 
unturned  to  convince  the  pubhc  of  the  benefits  conferred  by 
the  oriental  trade. 

During  a  dispute  that  occurred  in  1621,  a  tract  was  issued 
by  one  Thomas  Nun  to  controvert  the  growing  contention 
that  '  it  were  a  happier  thing  for  Christendom  (say  many 


24     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

men)  that  the  navigation  of  the  East  Indies  by  way  of  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  had  never  been  found  out,'  He  pleaded 
that  since  the  discovery  of  this  route,  '  the  kingdom  is  purged 
of  desperate  and  unruly  people  who,  kept  in  awe  by  the  goZ)d 
disciphne  at  sea,  do  often  change  their  former  course  of  life 
and  so  advance  their  fortunes  ' ;  the  new  trade  with  the 
East,  he  urged,  was  '  a  means  to  bring  more  treasure  into 
the  realm  than  all  the  other  trades  of  the  kingdom  (as  they 
are  now  managed),  being  put  together  ' ;  indeed,  '  sinee  the 
beginning  of  the  trade  until  the  month  of  July  last,  anno 
1620,  there  have  been  sent  thither  79  ships  in  several  voyages, 
whereof  34  are  already  come  home  in  safety  richly  laden, 
four  have  been  worn  out  by  long  service  from  port  to  port 
in  the  Indies,  two  were  overwhelmed  in  the  trimming  thereof, 
six  have  been  cast  away  by  the  perils  of  the  sea,  twelve  have 
been  taken  and  surprised  by  the  Dutch,  whereof  divers  vill 
be  wasted  and  little  worth  before  they  be  restored,  and  21 
good  ships  do  still  remain  in  the  Indies.  First  there  hath 
been  lost  £31,079  in  the  six  ships  which  are  cast  away,  and 
in  the  34  ships  which  are  returned  in  safety  there  have  been 
brought  home  £356,288  in  divers  sorts  of  wares  which  have 
produced  here  in  England  towards  the  general  stock  thereof 
£1,914,000.  So  there  ought  to  remain  in  the  Indies  to  be 
speedily  returned  hither  £484,088.  Pepper,  mace,  nutmegs, 
indigo,  rum,  silk,  which  would  have  cost  £1,465,000  if  pur- 
chased at  the  old  rate,  could  now  be  purchased  in  the  East 
Indies  for  £511,458.' 

Again  in  1628  a  petition  was  made  to  the  House  of  Commons 
showing  that  of  late  years  '  some  evil  encounters,  not  only 
of  the  seas  and  enemies,  but  more  especially  the  undue  pro- 
ceedings and  actions  of  our  professed  friends  and  allies,  have 
infinitely  damnified  the  said  traffic  .  .  .  the  aforemen- 
tioned disasters,  and  the  carrying  of  foreign  coins  out  of 
this  kingdom  into  the  Indies,  have  begot  such  causeless  com- 
plaint in  the  mouths  of  many  of  His  Majesty's  subjects,  of  all 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  25 

degrees  and  in  all  places  of  the  realm,  that  the  adventurers 
are  thereby  much  discouraged  to  trade  any  longer  under 
the  evil  censure  of  the  multitude,  desiring  nothing  more 
than  to  obtain  their  private  jv^ealth  with  the  pubhc  good/ 
The  trade  was  declared  by  those  concerned  in  it  to  '  increase 
the  strength,  wealth,  safety,  treasure  and  honour  of  this  so 
great  a  king  and  kingdom,'  and  it  was  vaunted  that  fifteen 
thousand  tons  of  shipping,  and  two  thousand  five  hundred 
sailors  were  already  employed  by  the  Company.^ 

Such  rephes  had  their  effect,  in  saving  the  Company  from 
suffering  under  the  assaults  of  its  enemies  ;  but  the  assaults 
themselves  continued,  and  a  Hvely  paper  war  was  waged  for 
over  a  century  between  the  opponents.  The  nature  of  the 
attacks  may  be  gauged  from  the  titles  of  some  of  the  later 
pamphlets.  In  the  year  1681,  for  instance,  was  pubhshed  a 
'  treatise  wherein  is  demonstrated  that  the  East  India  trade 
is  the  most  national  of  all  foreign  trades,  that  the  clamours, 
aspersions,  and  objections  made  against  the  present  East 
India  Company  are  sinister,  selfish,  or  groundless.'  This 
was  for  the  defence,  replying  to  the  complaint  that  the 
shares  of  the  Company  were  engrossed  in  few  hands,  and 

^  The  East  India  Company  grew  into  one  of  the  greatest  private 
shipping  powers  afloat.  A  special  committee  sat  in  London  to  control 
its  marine  ;  its  vessels,  which  were  armed  against  attack  on  the  high 
seas,  were  celebrated  throughout  the  civilised  world,  and  the  post  of 
captain  in  the  Company's  fleet  was  highly  esteemed  as  both  an  honour- 
able and  profitable  occupation.  The  outward  or  homeward  voyage  might 
last  any  time  from  six  months  to  a  year  ;  calls  were  made  at  St.  Helena, 
and  sometimes  at  Cape  Town,  for  refreshment  and  water.  But  in  spite 
of  putting  in  at  these  and  other  places  for  rest  and  change  of  diet,  scurvy, 
that  ancient  scourge  of  the  sea,  ravaged  the  ships  on  every  voyage. 
Sometimes  all  the  men  were  down  with  sickness,  and  unable  even  to 
unfurl  the  sails,  or  to  navigate  the  vessel  into  port.  The  following 
records  of  the  vessels  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company,  which  Mr.  Theal 
has  transcribed  in  his  History  of  Cape  Colony,  give  an  idea  of  the  fearful 
mortality  among  the  seamen.  In  1693,  for  example,  221  men  of  the 
Bantam  died  of  scurvy  on  the  voyage  between  Holland  and  Cape  Town  ; 
the  Goude  Buys  had  only  12  men  in  a  crew  of  190  that  were  not  sick  ; 
the  Schoondyk  reported  that  134  men  out  of  a  crew  of  254  had  died,  and 
the  whole  of  the  remainder  were  down  with  scurvy.  Many  other  cases 
could  be  cited  ;  and  it  is  improbable  that  the  crews  of  English  vessels 
sufi'ered  less  from  disease  than  the  Dutch. 


26     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

that  tlie  price  of  the  stock,  of  which  £100  then  stood  at 
£280,  was  too  high.  The  complaint,  indeed,  was  the  best 
testimonial  of  its  prosperity  that  the  Company  could  have. 

Another  pamphlet  of  1695  objected  that  they  '  have  not 
been  pleased  to  make  war  upon  any  other  nation  but  the 
English,'  and  speaks  of  '  the  frauds  which  this  Company 
exercises  over  the  rest  of  the  nation/  One  dated  1730  is 
entitled  '  a  collection  of  papers  relating  to  the  East  India 
trade,  wherein  are  shewn  the  disadvantages  to  a  nation  by 
confining  any  trade  to  a  corporation  with  a  joint  stock,' 

It  was  not  only  rival  merchants  and  capitahsts  who  were 
envious ;  the  Company  for  many  years  built  its  own 
ships,  and  thus  roused  the  intense  opposition  of  those  who 
were  injured  thereby.  '  Every  man  not  his  own  shipbuilder,' 
is  the  title  of  an  angry  phihppic  of  1778  :  and  the  '  dangers 
and  disadvantages '  of  this  enterprise  had  already  been  set 
out  at  length  in  1768. 

It  was  all  of  no  use  ;  the  Company  knew  how  to  defend 
itself  sufficiently  well.  The  directors  never  hesitated  to 
Its  Policy  bribe  their  more  dangerous  enemies  ;  the  others 
in  England,  ^j^gy  could  disregard.  The  opposition  continued 
as  long  as  the  Company  existed ;  one  of  its  most  virulent 
antagonists  indeed  was  James  Mill,  the  historian  of  British 
India,  whose  prejudice  is  shown  on  every  page  of  his 
volimiinous  work.  But  of  more  importance  was  the 
jealousy  of  competing  merchants,  and,  at  least  in  earlier 
years,  the  greed  of  the  Crown.  It  needed  considerable  tact 
and  not  a  httle  unscrupulousness  for  a  rich  commercial  cor- 
poration to  weather  the  political  storms  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  perhaps  the  greatest  praise  that  can  be  given 
to  the  East  India  Company  is  that,  attacked  by  rivals  as  it 
was  both  in  Europe  and  Asia,  it  not  only  did  not  go  under, 
but  actually  advanced  considerably  in  wealth  and  influence. 
Its  Indian  policy  changed  from  time  to  time  as  necessity 
dictated,  and  the  early  directors  would  have  been  aghast 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  27 

at  the  discretionary  powers  allowed  to  the  Company's  Indian 
servants  in  Olive's  day  :  but  the  home  policy  hardly  ever 
altered. 

The  East  India  Company  possessed  by  law  a  terminable  ? 
monopoly  ;  and  it  was  the  first  business  of  the  Company  to  f 
keep  it.     If  any  infringement  of  that  monopoly  was  threatened  • 
a  petition  was  at  once  lodged  with  the  King  or  the  Commons,  | 
whichever  for  the  time  being  was  the  more  powerful :    and 
according  to  the  motives  most  likely  to  influence  the  one 
or  the  other,  the  directors  offered  either  a  bribe  or  a  loan, 
or  if  uprightness  happened  to  be  in  fashion  at  the  moment,  a 
consideration  of  the  advantage  their  trade  was  to  the  kingdom 
at  large. 

If  these  means  failed,  and  a  new  competitor  was  fairly 
launched  on  the  oriental  trade,  his  capacity  was  gauged  as 
quickly  as  possible.  Did  he  appear  of  small  importance,  he 
was  mercilessly  crushed  ;  was  it  a  company  of  large  capital 
but  indifferent  management,  it  was  contemptuously  let  alone 
till  its  funds  were  exhausted,  in  the  certainty  that  it  must 
then  withdraw  from  the  trade,  and  its  failure  deter  other 
adventurers.  Should  it  be,  on  the  other  hand,  an  enterprise 
that  promised  success,  the  advantages  of  amalgamation 
were  ceaselessly  paraded,  and  sooner  or  later  the  two  combined. 

Such  a  policy  could  not  be  worked  out  all  at  once,  or  even 
for  many  years  in  its  entirety  ;  but  it  was  evolved  gradually 
in  the  same  way  that  the  simple  body  of  independent  mer- 
chants who  formed  the  Company  up  to  the  year  1612  changed 
step  by  step  into  an  oligarchy,  or  closed  corporation,  direct- 
ing operations  of  enormous  extent  by  means  of  committees 
and  sub-committees. 

By  the  year  1708  the  work  of  the  Company  was  systematised 
and  the  mere  list  of  its  officials  and  divisions  shows  how  well 
arranged  were  its  affairs.     The  shareholders  were 
divided  into  Courts  of  Proprietors,  from  whom 
were  selected  committees,  the  members  of  which  were  after- 


28     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

wards  called  directors.     The  qualification  for  a  vote  in  the 
Court  of  Proprietors  was  £500  in  stock ;   the  quahfication 
for  a  director,  of  whom  there  were  twenty-four,  was  £2000. 
The  latter  were  headed  by  a  chairman  and  deputy-chairman, 
and  each  director  was  to  be  re-elected  annually.     Thirteen 
directors  formed  a  quorum,  and  meetings  were  held  as  often 
as  necessary.     The  directors  divided  their  work  among  ten 
committees  and  others  were  added  later.     These  ten  were  : — 
L  Of  correspondence  :   its  work  was  the  most  private  and 
responsible   of  any ;    all   Indian   questions   were  re- 
ferred to  it,  all  diplomatic  and  political  affairs,  as  well 
as  matters  of  patronage. 

2.  Of  law-suits. 

3.  Of  treasury. 

4.  Of  warehouses. 

5.  Of  accounts. 

6.  Of  buying. 

7.  Of  the  house  :   that  is,  the  management  of  the  ofl&ce  in 

London. 

8.  Of  shipping. 

9.  Of  regulating  private  trade  :    that  is,  to  see  that  the 

Company's  servants  did  not  exceed  the  amount  allowed 

by  the  Company's  regulations. 
10.  Of  checking    private  trade  :    that  is,  to  discover  and 

put  down,  or  give  orders  to  put  down,  the  trade  of 

other  EngHsh  merchants  in  the  East,  which  threatened 

the  monopoly  of  the  Company. 
But  before  the  Company  had  become  so  imposing  as  to 
divide  its  work  into  sub-committees,  it  had  undergone  many 
Its  vicissi-  vicissitudes  ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  ex- 
tudes  in  traordinary  sagacity  displayed  by  the  directors, 
Engian  .  -^  would  certainly  have  failed  altogether.  In 
1604  already  the  shareholders  were  needlessly  alarmed 
at  a  charter  granted  to  Sir  E.  Michelborne,  to  trade  with 
Cathay,  China,  Japan,  Corea,  and  Cambay.     In  spite  of  its 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  29 

imposing  character  and  pretensions,  however,  the  latter  scheme 
came  to  nothing,  and  in  1609  the  East  India  Company 
had  its  own  charter  renewed  in  perpetuity,  but  termin- 
able at  three  years'  notice.  In  1612  it  was  put  on  a  joint- 
stock  basis,  but  the  operation  of  that  system  was  as  yet 
imperfectly  understood,  and  the  opposition  that  came  from 
ignorance  was  naturally  increased  when  both  projS.ts  and 
dividends  decreased.  The  general  attack  made  on  monopoHes 
at  this  time  looked  threatening,  though  it  passed  without 
danger  to  the  Company  :  but  Eang  Charles  and  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham  claimed  a  share  of  the  prize-money  taken  in  the 
East.  The  directors  protested,  but  Buckingham  detained 
their  ships  when  about  to  sail  on  the  season's  journey  to  India. 
The  claim  was  then  at  once  admitted,  and  an  order  made  to 
pay ;  it  cannot,  however,  be  ascertained  that  the  amount 
was  ever  actually  made  over. 

But  the  profits  continued  to  decrease,  and  fewer  ships 
were  sent  out,  although  the  general  condition  of  England  was 
prosperous ;  and  it  would  seem  that,  had  the  management 
not  been  temporarily  at  fault  at  this  time,  things  should  have 
gone  favourably,  and  oriental  goods  been  sure  of  finding  a 
profitable  market. 

In  1632  further  subscriptions  were  required  and  obtained ; 
but  three  years  later  the  king  granted  a  Hcence  to  another 
company,  taking  a  share  in  it  himself.  Again  the  danger 
was  serious,  and  the  older  Company  remonstrated  before  the 
Privy  Council :  after  repeated  petitions,  the  king  disallowed 
the  rival  hcence  ;  but  new  difficulties  now  arose,  since  more 
capital  was  required ;  and  there  were  but  few  subscriptions, 
owing  to  the  upheaval  caused  by  the  beginning  of  the  Civil 
War  in  England. 

At  this  time,  too,  the  king  seized  on  the  Company's  store 
of  pepper  in  London  to  replenish  his  purse ;  he  gave  a  bond 
to  pay,  but  the  debt  seems  never  to  have  been  settled.  For 
the  next  few  unquiet  years,  Httle  information  has  been  pre- 


30     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

served  as  to  the  doings  of  the  Company,  and  it  may  be  con- 
jectured from  this  and  the  poHtical  troubles  of  the  day,  that 
the  business  did  not  flourish. 

Under  the  Commonwealth  its  privileges  were  again 
threatened,  but  eventually  secured  :  by  now,  however,  there 
was  considerable  confusion  amongst  the  various  stockholders, 
each  of  whom  had  entered  the  Company  at  different  dates, 
and  each  of  whom  put  forward  difierent  claims. 

At  last  in  1658  a  new  Company  was  formed,  which  bought 
up  the  old  at  a  valuation,  as  well  as  disposing  of  a  rival  that 
had  disappeared.  No  sooner  was  the  Restoration  accom- 
pUshed  than  the  directors  petitioned  Charles  ii.  for  a  renewal 
of  their  charter,  which  was  granted  ;  but  trade  again  lan- 
guished until  new  capital  was  provided  in  1667.  In  that 
year  sixteen  ships  sailed  for  India,  and  each  year  thence- 
forward more  were  sent,  and  with  a  more  valuable  cargo. 
In  the  same  year,  1667,  the  first  order  was  given  for  a  pro- 
duct that  afterwards  became  a  staple  of  the  Company's 
trade :  the  factors  were  '  to  send  home  by  these  ships 
100  lb.  weight  of  the  best  tey  that  you  can  get."  ^ 

All  went  smoothly  from  now  until  the  year  1690,  when 
the  House  of  Commons  decided  on  the  formation  of  a  new 
Company.     Protests  were  in  vain  :    ParHament  obstinately 

^  The  trade  in  tea  soon  became  a  source  of  great  profit  to  the  Company, 
as  the  taste  for  the  beverage  grew  in  England.  In  1676  the  agents  of  the 
Company  at  Bantam  in  Java  were  instructed  to  invest  a  hundred  dollars 
annually  in  tea,  which  was  probably  the  extent  of  the  demand  at  home  ; 
but  in  1684  a  trading-station  was  opened  at  Canton,  which  became  the 
centre  of  the  Chinese  export  tea  trade,  and  eventually  led  to  a  regular 
traffic  with  China  in  other  things  besides  tea,  as  well  as  to  diplomatic 
complications.  In  the  early  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century  tea  was 
already  a  popular  drink  among  the  wealthier  classes  in  England  ;  it  was 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  poor,  however,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  next 
hundred  years.  But  the  price  fell  continuously,  and  even  the  humble 
Uriah  Heep  could  afford  to  drink  it  in  his  cottage  at  Canterbury,  as 
well  as  the  more  prosperous  Wellers  at  Dorking,  in  the  later  years  of 
George  iv.  It  may  be  noticed  that  in  those  days  tea  was  generally  served 
immediately  after  dinner,  as  is  still  the  custom  in  some  houses  in 
Holland  ;  not  until  Victorian  times  did  '  five  o'clock  tea  '  become  a  social 
institution  in  England. 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  31 

aflSjmed  the  '  right  of  all  Enghshmen  to  trade  to  the  East 
Indies.' 

But  Sir  Josiah  Child,  the  chairman  of  the  old  Company,  was 
prepared  to  meet  opposition  ;  he  ordered  the  servants  of 
that  body  in  India  to  seize  and  imprison  all  Englishmen  who 
might  be  found  in  the  East,  and  who  were  not  in  the  employ 
of  his  Company.  The  Governor  of  the  Company's  Asiatic 
stations  in  answer  stated  his  willingness  to  obey  commands, 
but  weakly  expressed  his  fear  that  the  laws  of  England  stood 
in  the  way  of  illegal  confinement.  Child's  reply  was  subhme 
in  its  contempt  for  the  home  authorities  :  '  he  expected  his 
orders  were  to  be  rules,  and  not  the  laws  of  England,  which 
were  an  heap  of  nonsense,  compiled  by  a  few  ignorant  country 
gentlemen,  who  hardly  knew  how  to  make  laws  for  the  good 
of  their  own  private  famihes,  much  less  for  the  upholding 
of  companies  and  foreign  commerce.' 

But  ParUament,  though  unconscious  of  this  contempt  for 
its  ordinances,  had  discovered  that  the  Company  was  guilty 
of  bribery  to  the  extent  of  some  £90,000  in  one  year  :  and 
the  Commons,  seeing  a  chance  to  score  a  point  against  the 
Upper  House,  impeached  the  Duke  of  Leeds  for  having 
accepted  a  gift  of  £5000. 

There  is  small  doubt  that  he  was  guilty ;  but  through  the 
adroitness  of  Child,  the  prosecution  fell  through.  The  two 
companies  were  now  allowed  to  trade  on  equal  terms  ;  but 
this  was  not  enough  for  the  older  body,  accustomed  as  it  was 
to  the  monopoly  of  Indian  commerce.  It  therefore  brought 
an  accusation  of  piracy  against  its  rivals  at  the  Asiatic  Courts, 
having  first  carefully  provided  some  foundation  for  the  charge. 

'  Two  East  India  Companies  in  England,'  it  was  said, '  could 
no  more  subsist  without  destroying  one  the  other,  than  two 
Idngs ' :  but  the  new  company  destroyed  itself.  To  obtain 
its  privileges,  it  had  offered  the  enormous  loan  or  bribe  of 
two  millions  sterHng  at  eight  per  cent,  to  the  Enghsh  Govern- 
ment ;    and  when  this  was  accepted  and  paid,  there  was 


32     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

nothing  left  for  working  capital.  It  struggled  on  for  a  few 
years,  subject  to  every  financial  embarrassment  at  home, 
and  reviled,  obstructed,  and  defamed  by  its  more  energetic 
and  capable  competitor  in  India  :  but  it  was  obviously  of 
no  use  continuing  in  this  manner,  and  on  22nd  July  1702  the 
two  companies  amalgamated.  The  union  was  made  final 
and  indivisible  six  years  later. 

!The  success  of  the  original  Company  had  been  as  fluctuat- 
ing  in    India    as    at   home.     The  first    trading  depots,  or 
I  The  East        factories  as  they  were  called  in  the  language  of 

'   1^1^^  ^^°™"     the  time,  were  estabhshed  at  Bantam  and  the 
pany  m  ' 

India.  Moluccas,  and  others  were  attempted  at  Surat 

and  Cambay.  The  two  former  aroused  the  hostihty  of  the 
Dutch ;  the  two  latter  were  for  a  time  frustrated  by  the 
Portuguese.  Thus  early  was  the  Company  made  aware  of 
the  uncompromising  enmity  it  would  have  to  face  from  its 
competitors  :  but  victory  over  the  Portuguese  in  a  skirmish 
in  1614  gave  the  EngUsh  some  reputation  in  India. 

They  had  already  received  a  firman  from  the  Mughal 
Emperor  on  11th  January  1612,  giving  them  hberty  to  trade 
in  his  dominions  ;  and  the  embassy  of  Sir  Thomas  Eoe,  two 
years  later,  did  much  to  estabhsh  their  position  as  legitimate 
traders  in  the  East.  From  the  despatches  he  sent  home  it 
may  be  gathered  that  the  advisabihty  of  building  forts  in 
India  had  already  been  debated.  '  If  the  emperor  would 
offer  me  ten,'  he  wrote,  '  I  would  not  accept  of  one.  ...  If 
you  will  profit,  seek  it  at  sea,  and  in  quiet  trade  ;  for  without 
controversies,  it  is  an  error  to  affect  garrisons  and  land  wars 
in  India.' 

Roe  did  something  for  his  countrymen,  too,  in  another 
direction.  '  I  have  done  my  best  to  disgrace  the  Dutch,'  he 
wrote,  '  but  could  not  turn  them  out  without  further  danger.' 
He  quickly  reahsed  the  power  of  money  in  the  court  of  an 
Asiatic  potentate.  '  Half  my  charge  shall  corrupt  all  this 
court  to  be  your  slaves.'    Here  again  did  the  Company 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  33 

receive  its  first  lessons  in  an  art  at  which  its  chief  officials 
later  became  adepts.  Efforts  were  now  made  to  open  up 
trade  with  the  Spice  Islands  and  with  Persia  ;  in  the  latter 
case  with  httle  result,  in  spite  of  an  agent  being  sent  to  the 
court  of  the  Shah.  * 

In  the  Spice   Islands   it  was   another   matter,  but   here 
the  success  of  the  EngUsh  soon  caused  a  collision  with  the 
Dutch.     A  treaty  between  the  Governments   of    The 
England  and  Holland  was  concluded  on  17th  July    ^^^  * 
1619,  guaranteeing  mutual  amnesty ;  it  was  ob-    HoUand. 
served  in  the  East  for  one  hour,   while  the  rivals  saluted 
each   other   courteously   from   their   ships.     The   ceremony 
over,  war  at  once  began  again  ;    and  it  culminated  in  1623 
in  the  Amboyna  outrage. 

Amboyna  was  one  of  the  great  Dutch  trading  stations  in 
Asia  ;   and  the  competition  of  the  EngHsh,  which  had  never 
been  welcomed,  soon  became  uncomfortably  keen    The 
in    the    neighbourhood.     At    length    the    Dutch    ^^^ 
attacked    the    Enghsh    East    India    Company's    1623. 
factory  there,   seizing  its  occupants.     These,   consisting   of 
ten   Englishmen,    nine   Japanese,    and   a   Portuguese,    were 
told  that  in  Dutch  territory  they  must  obey  Dutch  laws  ; 
they  were  tortured  and  found  guilty  of  conspiracy  to  sur-     : 
prise  the  Dutch  garrison,  condemned,  and  executed.     The 
charge  may  or  may  not  have  been  true ;   but  the  judicial    / 
murder  was  at  any  rate  a  convenient,  and,  as  the  event    I 
proved,  a  not  very  expensive  means  of  getting  rid  of  a  dan-    I 
gerous  rival. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  Amboyna  outrage  reached  - 
England,  the  country  was  in  an  uproar ;  and  the  directors 
of  the  East  India  Company  inflamed  the  indignation  to  the 
best  of  their  ability,  by  descanting  on  the  barbarity  of  the 
deed,  and  especially  on  the  horrors  of  torture.  The  latter, 
was  still  a  legitimate  method  of  forcing  a  reluctant  witness 
to  speak  in  Holland,  and  it  had  not  long  been  abandoned  in 

VOL.  II.  c 


34  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

England  itself  ;  but  popular  indignation  has  a  short  memory 
when  it  is  convenient  not  to  remember ;  and  the  directors 
continually  pubhshed  pamphlets  and  ghastly  pictures  of  the 
outrage,  to  ensure  that  there  should  be  no  slackening  in  the 
demand  for  revenge  against  Holland.^  Litigation  ensued, 
but  the  matter  was  not  finally  settled  till  thirty  years  later. 
The  dispute  was  then  referred  to  arbitration,  the  English 
claiming  two  and  a  half  millions  sterhng  compensation,  the 
Dutch  nearly  three  milhons  :  in  the  end  the  East  India  Com- 
pany received  judgment  for  the  insignificant  sum  of  £3615. 

The  massacre  practically  stopped  English  enterprise  in 
the  East  Indian  archipelago  for  two  centuries,  diverting  it  to 
the  mainland  instead  ;  but  from  that  time  till  1689  there  was 
a  bitter  contest  with  Holland  on  the  high  seas  and  in  the 
Indian  peninsula  itself.  Neither  English  nor  Dutch  would 
be  content  without  the  monopoly  of  trade,  and  neither  nation 
was  deterred  by  excessive  scrupulousness  as  to  the  means 
employed  to  gain  it. 

On  the  ocean  the  fight  was  fair  and  square  as  between 
seamen.  In  the  Asiatic  courts  it  was  conducted  by  intrigue, 
and  the  impartial  historian  finds  it  diflficuit  to  decide  which 
nation  produced  more  finished  experts  in  the  useful  art 
of  deception.  In  the  Asiatic  markets  the  Dutch  agents  would 
buy  up  the  whole  native  produce  at  a  higher  price  than  the 
English  were  able  to  afford,  and  sell  their  European  stock 

^  The  outrage  indirectly  gave  a  new  play  to  the  English  language,  for 
Dryden  wrote  Amhoyna  in  1673,  in  order  to  inflame  his  countrymen  in 
general,  and  Londoners  in  particular,  against  tlie  Dutch.  The  following 
lines  from  the  prologue  show  the  character  of  the  play  : — 

'  The  dotage  of  some  Englishmen  is  such 
To  fawn  on  those  who  ruin  them,  the  Dutch. 
They  shall  have  all,  rather  than  make  a  war 
With  those  who  of  the  same  religion  are.  .    .  . 
Be  gulled  no  longer  ;  for  you  '11  find  it  true. 
They  have  no  more  religion,  faitii,  than  you  ; 
Interest's  the  god  they  worship  in  their  vState  ; 
And  you,  I  take  it,  have  not  much  of  that.' 

The  play  may  have  answered  its  purpose  politically ;  but  considered 
as  drama  it  is  very  poor  stuff. 


THE  EUKOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  35 

so  low  that  the  English  could  not  sell  theirs  at  all.  In  the 
West  again  both  nations  tried  their  hardest  to  undercut  each 
other.  The  Dutch  on  the  whole  seem  to  have  been  more 
successful  at  first,  since  theirs  was  a  great  state-trading  com- 
pany with  practically  unlimited  funds  at  its  disposal,  whereas 
the  Enghsh  East  India  Company  was  a  private  enterprise 
frequently  kept  in  check  by  the  national  hatred  of  monopoly  ; 
but  the  Dutch  ruined  themselves  later  by  a  short-sighted 
pohcy  in  not  adapting  themselves  to  the  changing  conditions 
of  oriental  trade,  while  the  Enghsh  kept  fast  hold  of  what 
they  had,  and  were  ever  pushing  forward  for  something 
more. 

Both  Enghsh  and  Dutch  East  India  Companies  were  abso- 
lutely dependent  on  the  fidehty  and  industry  of  their  servants 
in   the  East ;    and  to  judge  by  the  results  in    ^j^^ 
India  and  the  East  Indies,  both  were  served  well,    company's 
The    directors    of    the    English    Company    were    ^^^^^^*3- 
indeed    continually    grumbling    that    their    employees     in 
Asia  were  dishonest  to  their  masters  and  lax  in  their  execution 
of  their  duties,  and  the  Dutch  archives  would  probably  reveal 
precisely  similar  complaints.     But  the  commercial  corpora- 
tion has  yet  to  be  found  that  is  completely  satisfied  with 
the  work  of  its  employees.     Serious  and  well-founded  grounds 
for  discontent  there  undoubtedly  were  on  both  sides,  but 
the  original  fault  generally  lay  with  the  directors. 

Although  to  enter  the  service  of  the  Company  soon  became 
known  as  affording  a  promising  career  to  young  men,  em- 
ployment at  one  of  its  Indian  stations  was  valued  rather  for 
ulterior  reasons  than  for  any  direct  advantages.  The  pay 
was  small ;  the  voyage  was  tedious  ;  the  exile  was  long. 
The  chmate  was  not  always  healthy  ;  it  was  frequently  diffi- 
cult or  impossible  to  obtain  the  conveniences  of  life,  and 
promotion  was  seldom  quick.  The  service  required  of  the 
clerks,  at  least  in  the  lower  grades,  was  monotonous  and 
irksome.     Yet  to  those  who  desired  to  escape  from  the  limits 


36     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

of  their  own  narrow  isle,  or  as  it  more  generally  was  in  those 
days  of  few  travelling  facilities,  from  the  neighbourhood  in 
which  they  were  born,  life  in  a  strange  country  was  full  of 
romantic  possibilities  ;  while  it  was  always  feasible  to  make  a 
steady  income,  frequently  a  good  competence,  and  occasionally 
to  amass  great  wealth,  by  indulging  in  private  trade.    In 
the  later  days  of  the  Company  other  opportunities  ofiered,  of 
extortion  from  the  native  princes  and  peoples,  and  the  Enghsh 
in  India  were  not  slow  to  exact  a  profit  from  them  as  well ; 
but  this  was  not  until  the  Company  had  embarked  on  terri- 
torial sway.     For  the  first  century  and  a  half  of  its  existence 
the  operations  of  the  employees  were  restricted  to  private 
itrade.     It   is   true   that  this   was  forbidden,   and  that  the 
Vdirectors  did  their  utmost  to  suppress  it.     They  complained 
/  with  reason  that  the  Company's  servants  looked  after  their 
/  personal  interests  before  those  of  the  Company  ;  but  the  pay 
I  was  so  small  that  they  could  not  expect  them  to  do  anything 
I    else.    The  salary  of  the  Governor  of  Madras,  for  instance,  was 
I    only  £300  yearly,  and  in  1664  he  was  given  £200  extra  on 
I    condition  that  he  ceased  trading  on  his  own  account.     He 
I    accepted  it,  but  it  has  not  been  ascertained  that  he  took  no 
'    further  advantage  of  his  opportunities.^ 

From  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  directors  in  London  could 
not  keep  a  complete  check  upon  afEairs  in  India,  and  private 
trade  continued  as  long  as  the  Company  was  a  commercial 
bod)'^ ;  even  Clive  was  unable  entirely  to  suppress  it.  But  if 
the  directors  lost  on  the  one  hand,  they  occasionally  gained 
with  the  other.  Some  of  their  agents  in  the  East  did  more 
to  extend  their  trade  than  the  remissness  or  cupidity  of  a 
whole  generation  of  clerks  did  to  lessen  it.  In  1651,  for 
instance,  an  English  surgeon,  who  happened  to  be  at  the 
court  of  Bengal,  was  successful  in  curing  diseases  that  had 

^  The  Dutch  West  India  Company  made  the  same  complaint  that  its 
servants  carried  on  private  trade  ;  but  that  great  corporation  was  equally 
powerless  to  stop  the  abuse. 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  37 

baffled  the  native  doctors ;  and  on  being  asked  to  name  his 
reward,  he  obtained  a  state  Hcence  for  the  East  India  Com- 
pany, which,  on  payment  of  three  hundred  rupees,  allowed 
the  corporation  to  carry  on  unhmited  trade  in  the  country 
without  toll  of  customs.  In  1664,  again,  the  Company's 
servants  at  Surat  repelled  an  enemy  who  attacked  that  city  ; 
the  natives  had  already  fled  in  fear ;  and  on  their  return 
further  privileges  were  granted  to  the  defenders. 

The  Indian  system  of  the  Company  was  simpHcity  itself. 
Trade  was  carried  on  at  a  station,  where  English  goods 
were  exposed  for  sale  to  the  natives,  and  where  The  Method 
the  natives  could  bring  their  own  goods  to  be  °^  Trading, 
bought  or  exchanged.  The  Company's  servants  at  each 
station  were  divided  into  ranks,  named  successively  writer, 
factor,  junior  merchant,  and  senior  merchant.  Promotion 
was  made  from  step  to  step.  The  stations  were  responsible 
to  the  presidencies,  of  which  there  were  three,  at  Bombay, 
Madras,  and  Calcutta.  Each  of  the  presidencies  was  absolute 
and  independent,  except  to  the  Company  as  supreme  head ; 
each  was  ruled  by  a  Governor  and  a  Council  consisting  of 
various  members.  None  of  the  earher  servants  of  the  Com- 
pany have  left  any  name  ;  they  seem  to  have  been  of  average 
type,  generally  more  or  less  capable  and  industrious.  It 
was  not  until  the  next  age  that  there  was  any  opportunity  for 
a  great  administrator  ;  at  present  they  were,  and  they  could 
only  be,  business  men  pure  and  simple. 

The  stations  of  the  East  India  Company  in  India  were  at 
first  mere  unprotected  European  settlements  ;    but  the  dis- 
turbed  state   of   the   country   soon   necessitated    Territorial 
their  fortification.     In  this  step  may  be  seen  the    Acquisi- 
germ  of  the  territorial  sway  of  the  Company,  as 
in  the  authority  of  the  Governor  and  Council  of  the  Presidency 
lay  the  origin  of  its  later  system  of  rule. 

But  the  responsibility  of  owning  and  administering  land 
in  India  was  naturally  shirked  by  the  directors.     A  trading 


38     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEESEAS 

company  has   nothing  to   do   with   government.     And   the 
i     East  India  Company  in  particular  had  been  warned  by  Sir 
\    Thomas  Roe  not  to  copy  the  Portuguese  and  Dutch,  but  to 
remain   contented   with   commerce.     His   advice   had   been 
followed,  and  good  results  had  accrued.     It  was  by  no  wish 
■fof  the  Company  that  it  became  anything  more  than  a  simple 
^mercantile  body.     It  possessed  indeed  civil,  criminal,  and 
■martial    jurisdiction    over    its    own    people    in    India ;  it 
obtained  the  power  of  making  peace  and  war,  and  conclud- 
ing treaties  with  non-Christian  peoples.     Such  functions  were 
recognised  by  the  directors  as  necessary ;    but  they  had  no 
desire  for  more,  and  for  nearly  a  century  they  protested 
against  any  further  power  or  responsibility. 

The  first  sign  of  a  change  is  in  a  despatch  dated  1689. 
'  The  increase  of  our  revenue,'  it  says,  '  is  the  subject  of  our 
care,  as  much  as  our  trade ;  'tis  that  must  maintain  our 
force,  when  twenty  accidents  may  interrupt  our  trade  ;  'tis 
that  must  make  us  a  nation  in  India  ;  without  that  we  are 
but  as  a  great  number  of  interlopers,  imited  by  His  Majesty's 
royal  charter,  fit  only  to  trade  where  nobody  of  power  thinks 
it  their  interest  to  prevent  us  ;  and  upon  this  account  it  is 
that  the  wise  Dutch,  in  all  their  general  advices  which  we 
have  seen,  write  ten  paragraphs  concerning  their  govern- 
ment, their  civil  and  military  pohcy,  warfare,  and  the  in- 
crease of  their  revenue,  for  one  paragraph  they  Avrite  concern- 
ing trade.' 

The  remarkable  change  of  view  shown  in  this  despatch  was 
due  to  two  or  three  different  causes.  The  unsettled  state 
of  India  had  now  rendered  it  incumbent  on  every  man  to 
guard  his  own  possessions  by  the  strength  of  his  arm.  The 
EngHsh  Government  could  annul  the  rights  of  a  trading 
company  that  depended  on  nothing  but  trade  ;  it  could 
hardly  confiscate  the  property  of  a  corporation  whose  posses- 
sions were  situated  on  the  other  side  of  the  world.  But  the 
East  India  Company  soon  resumed  its  old  attitude  of  dishke 


THE  EUKOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  39 

towards  any  territorial  acquisitions  made  by  too  zealous 
servants. 

The  value  of  the  stations  which  it  already  possessed  had 
been  proved,  and  the  course  of  events  had  made  the  Company 
owners  of  territories  other  than  these.  The  island  of  St. 
Helena  in  mid-Atlantic  was  used  as  a  port  of  call  for  its 
vessels ;  ^  and  in  India  itself  the  Company  had  made  further 
advances.  Fort  St.  George  was  erected  in  the  year  1639 
at  Madraspatam,  or  Madras  as  it  appears  in  the  EngUsh 
abbreviation.     Four  years  later  it  became  a  Presidency. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  Commonwealth,  when  a  period  of 
misfortune  menaced  the  Company,  it  was  decided  to  rehn- 
quish  tie  out-stations,  concentrating  all  business  in  Surat  and 
Madras ;  and  at  the  Kestoration,  when  Charles  ii.  offered  the 
directors  the  isle  of  Bombay,  which  was  part  of  the  marriage 
portion  he  had  received  from  Portugal,  it  was  refused.  To 
the  king,  however,  that  place  was  more  trouble  than  it  was 
worth,  and  in  1668  the  Company  took  it  over,  '  to  be  held 
in  free  aad  common  soccage,  as  of  the  manor  of  East  Greenwich, 
on  the  payment  of  the  annual  rental  of  £10  in  gold,  on  the 
30  September  in  each  year.' 

In  1687  Bombay  was  erected  into  a  regency,  with  un-  \ 
linited  power  over  aU  the  other  EngUsh  settlements  in  India  ;  \ 
at  the  same  time  Madras  became  a  corporation,  equipped  | 
wiih  the  mayor  and  civic  officials  dear  to  the  citizen's  I 
heart.  \ 

Already,  too,  on  20th  December  1686,  the  agent  and  council  j 
of  the  Company  had  left  the  old  factory  at  Hugli,  and  come  I 
to  Sutanati,  where,  after  some  diplomatic  fencing  with  the  | 
Mughal  Emperor,  three  towns  were  granted  to  the  Enghsh,  | 
among  which  was  Calcutta.  As  Fort  William,  it  became  a  f 
Presidency  in  1700.  / 

The  nucleus  of  each  of  the  three  great  Indian  dependencies  I 
therefore  already  belonged  to  the  East  India  Company  a  I 
1  For  St.  Helena  see  book  viii.  chap.  v. 


40  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

hundred  years  after  the  merchants  of  London  had  embarked 
on  the  '  pretended  voyage  '  to  the  Orient. 

Thus,  at  the  close  of  a  century  of  generally  prosperous  con- 
nection with  Asia,  England,  as  represented  by  the  East  India 
Company,  was  in  an  anomalous  position.  A  mercantile 
corporation  had  begun  to  acquire  powers  hardly  suifed  to 
its  original  character  ;  but  as  yet  the  anomaly  was  scarcely 
very  evident.  At  any  rate,  there  was  absolutely  no  indica- 
tion that  it  would  eventually  extirpate  all  its  rivals  in  the 
East. 

Still  less  could  the  wildest  dreamer  have  imagined  that 
another  hundred  years  would  see  the  subjugation  of  the 
greater  part  of  India  by  a  body  of  foreign  merchants  Any 
one  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  who  had  prophesied  half  so 
great  a  future  for  the  Company  would  have  been  quite  justi- 
fiably detained  in  Bedlam.  Yet  the  prophecy  would  have 
been  no  less  than  the  truth. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDIA  :    1700-57  ^ 
I    The  riches  of  the  Indies  had  become  a  proverb  in  Europe 


I    during  the  seventeenth  century.     The  wealth  of  those  who 

I    engaged    in    the    Indian    trade    was    obvious    to    all ;    {he 

^     mystery  which  surrounded  the  country  made  its  fascinatbn 

greater.     And  as  it  became  slowly  evident  that  Asiatic  con- 

j      merce  meant  also  Asiatic  conquest,  the  competition  betwem 

different  nations  became  sharper,  and  the  means  employed 

among  their  agents  grew  more  dubious.     We  have  noticed 

the  growing  settlements  of  the  Enghsh  East  India  Company 

in  the  Orient  during  the  seventeenth  century  :  but  the  deca7 

1  Authorities. — As  before,  with  Macaulay's  Essay  on  Clive  and  the 
biography  of  him  by  Malcolm.  Also  Malleson's  History  of  the  French  h 
India. 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  41 

of  Portugal  and  the  rise  of  Holland  came  about  during  the 
same  epoch  ;  and  the  Danes  and  the  Scots  endeavoured  to 
obtain  a  share  of  the  traffic,  while  the  French  entered  with  i 
zest  into  the  promotion  of  new  interests  in  India.  The  first/ 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century  is  the  history  of  a  general 
and  decisive  struggle  between  all  these  powers. 

After  the  dechne  of  the  Portuguese  in  the  East  it  was  a 
Frenchman  who  first  conceived  the  magnificent  idea  of  bring- 
ing India  as  a  whole  under  occidental  rule.     The  prize  was 
not  for  his  nation  ;  but  it  was  no  fault  of  the  Gallic  pioneers 
in  Asia  that  the  tiger  and  the  elephant  were  never  quartered    f 
with  the  pure  white  lihes  on  the  Bourbon  shield.     It  was    | 
a  Frenchman  who  first  saw  that  the  disruption  of  the  ancient   f 
kingdoms  of  India  was  fxill  of  possibihties  for  the  ambitious   I 
European.     The  Western  invasion  of  the  East  came  in  fact    \ 
just  at  the  time  when  the  old  order  of  things  was  passing    \ 
away. 

The  invasion  of  Timur    had  long  since   swept   through 
India,  by  which  the  '  streets  of  Delhi  were  rendered  impass- 
able by  heaps  of  dead.'     Other  invaders  had  come    Indian 
and  gone  as  he.      The  Musalman  invasion  had    Anarchy, 
founded  a  powerful  dynasty,  and  introduced  a  new  popula-    . 
tion  in  India,  whose  pride  it  was  that  they  alone  possessed    i 
the  true  faith  and  the  key  to  the  gates  of  Paradise.     The    if 
Mohammedans  were  ahens  in  the  country  they  had  conquered,    | 
and  they  boasted  of  it.     But  in  time  their  empire  also  broke   ; 
up  into  separate  kingdoms  ;  and  at  the  period  when  Europeans   I 
were  first  settling  in  the  East  a  new  synthesis  of  the  Indian 
peoples  was  forcibly  evolved  by  Akbar  the  Great,  the  real 
founder  of  the  Mughal  power.     The  states  that  had  become 
independent    were    reduced,    whether    Hindu,    Rajput,    or 
Musalman,  by  a  series  of  wars  and  alliances  ;    the  Indian 
Empire,  which  at  his  accession  was  confined  to  the  Punjab 
and   the  districts  round  Agra   and   Delhi,  in  a  few  years 
extended   from    the   heart  of   Afghanistan    southwards    to 


42  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

Orissa  and  Sind ;    only  the  South  successfully  defied  Akbar 
still. 

I  The  magnificence  of  the  Mughal  Empire  astounded  Sir 
j  Thomas  Eoe  when  he  arrived  at  its  capital  of  Delhi  early 
The  Mughal  ^^  ^^^  seventeenth  century.  Akbar,  its  sovereign, 
Empire.  was  not  only  a  great  soldier ;  he  was  equally 
great  as  an  administrator.  A  new  system  of  government 
and  revenue  was  introduced,  whereof  the  latter  continues 
in  part  to  this  day.  Reforms  were  everywhere  undertaken  : 
the  inhuman  rites  and  customs  of  the  Hindus  were  put  down  ; 
animal  sacrifices,  child-marriage,  and  trial  by  ordeal  were 
abolished ;  widow-burning  was  discouraged,  although  it 
could  not  be  stamped  out. 

In  the  Emperor's  court  there  was  a  wise  toleration.  Akbar 
■  loved  to  gather  round  him  professors  of  all  the  creeds  ;  and 
Jew,  Christian,  Musalman,  Parsi,  or  sceptic  each  stated  their 
belief,  debating  points  of  doctrine  openly  with  one  another. 
From  their  discussions  Akbar  himself  evolved  a  new  eclectic 
rehgion,  which  found  as  much  acceptance  as  such  schemes 
always  do. 

It  was  an  era  of  the  most  exquisite  taste  in  the  fine  arts  : 
■j  Akbar  and  his  successors  enriched  Delhi  and  Agra  with  the 
i  purest  gems  of  Indian  architecture.  The  Taj  Mahal  is  but 
';  the  most  perfect  of  a  series  of  beautiful  creations  that  have 
\     been  unparalleled  in  oriental  history. 

1  The  Mughal  Empire,  in  short,  was  the  most  imposing,  as 
I  it  was  perhaps  the  best,  that  India  had  yet  known.  Yet 
Its  DecUne  ^i^h  all  its  splendour,  that  Empire  was  but  as  a 
,  andFaU.  house  that  is  built  on  the  sand.  The  death  of 
5  its  founder  shook  it  severely ;  the  dissensions  of  his 
successors  wrecked  it  altogether.  The  sons  of  Akbar 
rebelled  against  him  and  quarrelled  among  themselves ; 
Aurungzeb,  the  last  great  native  monarch  of  India,  marched 
to  the  throne  through  a  sea  of  blood  after  deposing  his  father 
and  murdering  his  brothers. 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  43 

He  extended  the  authority  of  the  Miighals  into  provinces 
that  had  never  before  acknowledged  them.  He  subjugated 
much  of  Southern  India,  and  proudly  styled  himself  the  '  con- 
queror of  the  universe.'  His  court  was  as  brilhant  and 
magnificent  as  that  of  Akbar. 

But  corruption  had  eaten  it  through  and  through.  The 
unending  wars  that  had  been  necessary  to  his  victories  had 
in  the  long-run  only  enfeebled  the  army.  The  chief  power 
of  the  South  still  defied  him  at  his  death  in  1707.  The 
tributary  princes  had  always  girded  at  his  authority.  The 
foundations  of  the  Empire  had  altogether  decayed,  and  the 
end  of  his  reign  of  forty-eight  years  was  the  signal  for  a  period 
of  disastrous  anarchy  to  begin  in  India,  from  which  it  was  only 
rescued  when  the  British  became  supreme. 

All  through  his  reign  the  power  of  his  rivals,  the  Marathas, 
had  been  increasing  ;  and  when  he  spoke  his  last  words, — 
'  Come  what  may,  I  have  launched  my  vessel  on  the  waves  ; 
farewell !  farewell !  farewell !  ' — they  had  already  become 
a  formidable  confederacy,  which  proved  able  to  withstand 
for  over  a  century  the  continued  onslaughts  of  the  British. 

The  break-up  of  the  Mughal  Empire  was  now  quick,  com- 
plete, and  absolute.  There  was  again  a  contest  for  the  suc- 
cession. Three  sovereigns  in  a  few  years  were  boys  and  mere 
puppets.  Others  were  deposed  and  murdered.  The  Deccan 
declared  its  independence,  Haidarabad  broke  away  from  the 
nominal  control  to  which  it  had  been  subjected.  The  Punjab, 
one  of  the  oldest  provinces,  was  lost  long  before  it  finally 
forced  itself  free  in  1751. 

The  Mughal  Empire  continued  indeed  to  exist  for  many 
years  more.  But  it  existed  only  in  name,  and  the  last 
occupants  of  the  throne  of  Delhi  were  pensioners  of  the 
EngKsh,  Uving  lives  of  effeminate  sloth  and  luxury  in  the 
seclusion  of  their  palaces,  protected  indeed  from  harm  or 
the  resentment  of  their  subjects,  but  powerless  to  influence 
by  one  act  or  word  the  destinies  of  that  vast  country  which 


44  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

their  ancestors  had  gloriously  conquered,  and  had  frequently- 
ruled  with  wisdom. 

Meanwhile  India  was  devastated  by  invasions,  and  she  was 
unable  to  repel  them.  The  Sikhs  alone  were  defeated  ;  but 
India  the  cruelties  that  were  inflicted  on  them  remained 

Invaded.  burned  into  the  memory  of  that  warrior  race  for 
ever.  Their  leader  was  carried  about  in  an  iron  cage, 
robed  in  mockery  as  an  emperor  with  scarlet  turban  and 
cloth  of  gold.  His  son's  heart  was  torn  out  before  his  eyes, 
and  thrown  in  his  face.  He  himself  was  pulled  to  pieces 
with  red-hot  pincers,  and  his  followers  were  exterminated 
as  though  they  had  been  dogs.  But  if  in  this  case  the  enemy 
were  defeated,  the  very  victory  was  a  disgrace  to  the  people 
that  won  it,  and  a  proof  of  the  barbarity  to  which  they  had 
descended.  A  terrible  retribution  was  to  overtake  them  at 
the  hands  of  others. 

In  the  year  1739  Nadir  Shah  invaded  India  from  Persia  ; 
and  when  he  captured  Delhi  there  was  a  frightful  massacre 
in  its  streets,  while  the  devoted  city  was  given  over  to  a 
plunder  that  lasted  fifty-eight  days.  After  the  army  retired, 
sated  with  excess,  it  was  estimated  that  the  booty  they 
carried  with  them  was  of  the  value  of  thirty-two  milUons 
sterling. 

More  terrible  even  than  this  were  the  invasions  that 
followed  from  Afghanistan.  Six  times  in  rapid  succession 
the  savage  tribes  beyond  the  River  Indus  descended  on 
India,  ravaging  and  slaughtering  whithersoever  they  went, 
slaying  the  dwellers  in  lonely  hamlets  as  well  as  in  wealthy 
towns  ;  outraging  the  religious  feelings  of  the  Hindus  by 
despoiling  the  shrines  of  the  country  ;  murdering  the  votaries 
who  worshipped  at  the  holy  places  ;  leaving  ruin  and  despair 
around  them  on  all  sides.  The  border  lands  were  swept  bare 
of  inhabitants,  crops,  and  riches  ;  the  settlers  fled  to  the  hills, 
to  the  jungles,  to  any  hiding-place  that  offered,  preferring 
rather  to  share  the  lairs  of  wild  beasts  than  to  face  certain 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  45 

torture  and  death  at  the  hands  of  the  Afghans,  In  this 
dread  catastrophe  vanished  the  last  vestige  of  the  Mughal 
power. 

It  seems  almost  a  satire  to  say  that  few  years  in  the 
history  of  the  English  East  India  Company  had  been  quieter 
or  more  prosperous  than  those  in  which  these  TheEneiish 
awful  events  took  place.  From  1708,  when  the  in  India, 
two  authorised  corporations  which  had  struggled  ^'^°^"*^- 
for  the  Anglo-Indian  trade  were  amalgamated,  until  after 
1745,  when  the  great  contest  of  the  Europeans  in  India  finally 
began,  its  records  are  practically  devoid  of  interest.  There 
was  the  frustration  of  a  new  project  for  an  India  Company 
in  England  in  1730.  There  was  a  gradual  increase  of  sales  in 
India  until  in  the  record  year  of  1744  they  stood  at  nearly 
two  milUons  sterhng.  A  regular  dividend  of  seven  or  eight 
per  cent,  was  paid.  An  embassy  was  sent  to  the  Mughal 
Emperor  in  1715,  which,  having  waited  on  him  for  two  years, 
received  various  privileges,  such  as  the  right  to  purchase  land 
and  towns,  and  to  pass  goods  through  the  imperial  territories 
free  of  duty  or  inspection.  A  mission  station  was  estab- 
lished at  Madras  in  1728.  A  dockyard  was  built  at  Bombay 
in  1736.  An  attack  of  the  Marathas  on  Madras  was  repelled 
in  1741.  In  consequence,  the  forts  of  that  settlement  were 
enlarged  and  strengthened.  Such  were  the  commonplace 
matters  that  occupied  the  directors  and  servants  of  the 
East  India  Company  while  India  itself  was  torn  from  end 
to  end. 

Other  nations  had  come  and  gone,   as  the  struggle  for 
oriental  trade  became  keener.     The  vast  Asiatic  empire  of 
the    Portuguese    was    already    destroyed.     They    other 
had  been  swept  from  the  seas  by  the  Dutch  and    Europeans 
the  English.     On  land  the  perpetual  attacks  of    "^  ^  ^^' 
the   Dutch   had   reduced   them   to   three   wretched    towns, 
Goa,    Daman,    and    Diu,    which    contained    nothing   worth 
keeping,  and  which  showed,  in  the  words  of  Hunter,  a  mere 


46     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEESEAS 

miserable  chronicle  of  pride,  poverty,  and  high-sounding 
titles.  The  Portuguese  had  ever  been  crusaders  rather  than 
settlers  or  traders  ;  their  cruelties  caused  them  to  be  hated 
by  the  Hindus,  while  their  business  incapacity  made  them 
the  laughing-stock  of  more  commercial  nations.  There  were 
few  Portuguese  of  pure  blood  left  in  the  East ;  and  their 
descendants  were  the  Eurasian  half-castes  who  are  now 
hardly  distinguishable  from  the  native  Indian  stock.^ 

The  Dutch  had  since  become  the  leading  power  throughout 
the  East,  although  their  diminishing  weight  in  Europe  made 
it  less  likely  that  they  would  remain  so  in  the  future.  It 
was  not  till  1758  that  the  knell  of  their  existence  on  the 
Asiatic  mainland  was  sounded  by  the  English  captming  the 
Dutch  settlement  at  Chinsurah  ;  but  Holland  still  retained, 
and  even  extended,  her  power  in  the  East  Indian  islands. 
The  Danes  formed  an  East  India  Company  in  1612,  and 
another  in  1670  :  but  beyond  founding  a  few  small  trading 
stations  they  did  nothing  in  the  East.  The  same  causes 
that  prevented  Scandinavian  development  in  America  pre- 
vented it  also  in  India.^  The  merchants  of  Ostend,  under 
the  protection  of  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  had  also  formed 
an  East  India  Company  in  1723  ;  but  after  a  few  years' 
commercial  operations,  it  also  perished.  The  Scots,  too,  had 
tried  to  compete  in  the  race  for  oriental  trade,  but  the 
company  promoted  by  them  in  1695  was  a  failure  from 
its  birth.  Not  a  single  Scottish  enterprise  that  was  pro- 
jected overseas  before  the  union  with  England  had  any 
measure  of  success  whatever,  whether  directed  towards  Nova 
Scotia,  Panama,  or  India. 

But  by  far  the  most  brilliant  and  successful  of  the  European 

^  The  Portuguese  seem  to  have  had  no  idea  that  miscegenation  might 
have  an  evil  effect  on  the  dominant  race.  They  allied  themselves  freely 
with  the  natives  in  India  and  South  America,  while  Livingstone  observed 
the  same  thing  as  a  regular  custom  in  South  Africa.  There  is  undoubtedly 
a  strong  alien  strain  in  the  blood  of  very  many  Portuguese  families  in 
Portugal  at  the  present  day. 

-  See  vol.  i.  book  iii.  chap.  iv. 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  47 

powers  in  the  East  at  this  time  was  France,  and  the  history 
of  the  efforts  made  by  a  few  great  men  of  that  nation  to 
found  a  French  Empire  in  India  has  a  tragic  interest  of  its  own. 

The  early  years  of  their  connection  with  Asia  contained 
nothing  remarkable.  The  first  French  expedition  thither 
was  fitted  out  in  1503  by  some  Rouen  merchants  ;  ^^^  French 
it  sailed  for  the  East,  but  nothing  more  was  in  India, 
heard  of  it.  A  century  passed ;  and  in  1604 
the  first  French  East  India  Company  was  formed.  It  also 
came  to  nothing.  The  second,  in  1611,  showed  better  results  ; 
the  third,  inaugurated  by  RicheHeu  in  1642,  endeavoured 
to  found  a  colony  in  Madagascar,  and  having  failed  in  that, 
ceased  operations.  The  next  Company  was  formed  in  1664  : 
it  was  encouraged  by  the  king,  who  declared  that  oriental 
trade  was  not  derogatory  even  to  the  nobility ;  settlements 
were  made  in  the  islands  of  Mauritius  and  Bourbon,  and  in 
1668  the  first  factory  was  established  at  Surat. 

But  for  years  the  Company  was  almost  uniformly  unfor- 
tunate. Surat  had  to  be  abandoned.  Pondicherri,  which, 
founded  in  1674,  became  the  French  headquarters  in  Asia,  was 
taken  by  the  Dutch  in  1693.  Even  when  the  place  was  re- 
stored four  years  later,  trade  continued  to  languish.  The 
Company  quickly  lost  half  its  capital,  and  had  not  yet  declared 
a  dividend.  It  possessed  neither  ships  nor  money.  The 
directors  were  forced  to  lease  the  right  of  making  oriental 
voyages  to  the  merchants  of  St.  Malo.  The  rent  of  the  Indian 
stations  was  frequently  in  arrear.  The  salaries  due  to  the 
Company's  servants  were  irregularly  paid. 

In  1719,  indeed,  relief  seemed  at  hand.  The  French  East 
India  Company  was  amalgamated  with  those  trading  to  China 
and  Senegal ;  and  under  the  guidance  of  Law,  a  young 
Scottish  adventurer  who  endeavoured  to  restore  order  to  the 
French  national  exchequer,  the  shares  jumped  to  a  premium. 
As  great  a  rage  for  speculation  suddenly  sprang  up  in  France 
as  during  the  South  Sea  Bubble  the  next  year  in  England. 


48     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

The  merchants  ahnost  worshipped  Law  ;  the  nobility  ran 
after  him.  '  A  duchess  kisses  his  hand/  reported  the  scandal- 
mongers of  the  day,  '  how  then  will  other  women  kiss 
him?' 

But  in  a  few  months  the  entire  project  collapsed,  and  the 
Company  was  left  in  a  worse  position  than  before.  It  was 
Dupieix,  now  that  the  one  man  who  might  have  secured 
1730.  India    for    France    appeared.    Joseph    Fran9ois 

Dupieix  was  appointed,  through  the  influence  of  his 
father,  first  councillor  at  Pondicherri  in  1720.  From  the 
moment  of  arrival  his  energetic  nature  infused  fresh  life  into 
that  unprosperous  settlement.  He  stimulated  the  commerce 
of  the  Company,  and  by  indulging  in  private  trade  on  his  own 
account,  laid  the  foundations  of  the  splendid  fortune  which 
within  a  few  years  was  dissipated  in  too  faithful  service  to  his 
country's  interests  in  Asia.  The  Enghsh  merchants  at  the 
neighbouring  station  of  Madras  were  wealthy  but  unenterpris- 
ing ;  and  Dupieix  saw  at  once  that  Pondicherri  might  be  made 
the  emporium  of  the  whole  south  of  India.  His  exertions 
were  fast  succeeding  when  in  1726  the  directors  ordered  his 
recall  on  a  point  of  detail.  He  refused  to  return,  and  after 
four  years  of  incessant  wrangHng  his  appeal  was  allowed. 
Appointed  intendant  of  Chandanagore,  he  again  found  a  miser- 
able and  stagnant  French  settlement  a  few  miles  from  Calcutta, 
where  the  Enghsh  trade  was  increasing  every  year.  Again  his 
spirit  revolted  against  the  poverty  of  his  compatriots  in  the 
East.  He  embarked  his  private  means,  already  great,  in 
bringing  trade  to  Chandanagore.  He  attracted  the  native 
merchants  away  from  the  rival  European  stations  on  the 
Hugh,  and  in  four  years  the  quays  of  the  deserted  settlement 
were  teeming  with  goods  ;  a  fleet  of  some  forty  vessels  was 
soon  regularly  employed  in  the  French  trade  ;  relations  were 
opened  up  wHth  the  interior,  and  even  with  Tibet.  In  1741 
Dupieix  was  promoted  to  be  Governor  of  Pondicherri.  He 
was  now  supreme  in  the  French  Indies. 


THE  EUEOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  49 

At  exactly  what  time  lie  began  to  evolve  those  schemes  of 
conquest  which  so  nearly  gave  the  Empire  of  India  to  France 
instead  of  England  cannot  be  decided.  As  a  boy  he  had 
been  of  a  speculative  turn  of  mind,  loathing  commerce,  but 
dehghting  to  indulge  in  day-dreams  of  aU  sorts.  To  cure 
him,  a  prudent  father  had  sent  him  to  sea,  and  he  returned 
apparently  ready  to  become  a  good  man  of  business.  Such, 
indeed,  he  was  ;  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  old  specu- 
lative spirit  had  only  been  strengthened  by  what  he  had  seen 
on  his  eastern  voyage.  In  any  case,  even  if  it  lay  dormant 
during  his  early  years  in  India,  his  imagination  was  at  length 
fired  by  the  magnificence  of  the  opportunity  which,  with 
further  knowledge,  he  saw  presented  itself  to  a  resolute  man 
of  action. 

India  was  given  over  to  anarchy.  It  might  be  ruined  by 
the  feuds  of  the  native  princes.  It  might,  on  the  other  hand, 
be  conquered  by  any  one  of  them  who  was  strong  enough 
to  impose  his  will  on  the  rest.  But  it  was  evident  that  the 
superiority  of  the  European  over  the  strongest  native  was  at 
least  as  great  as  that  of  the  strongest  native  over  the  weakest. 
A  few  thousand  Europeans,  possessed  of  European  mihtary 
appHances  and  training,  might  have  conquered  the  immense 
armies  and  clumsy  artiUery  even  of  the  greatest  Asiatic 
pjinces.  They  could  certainly  rout  most  of  the  petty  chiefs 
with  ease.  By  a  judicious  system  of  alliances,  they  could 
disarm  the  hostility  of  perhaps  half  India  until  it  was  too  late 
to  resist.  Certainly  no  Western  power  had  as  yet  succeeded 
in  such  a  project.  But  the  directors  of  the  French  East  India 
Company  at  home  could  not  be  expected  to  realise  its  possi- 
bihty  ;  and  those  Europeans  who  had  been  in  India  hitherto 
were  only  stoUd  and  somewhat  stupid  traders  Hke  the  Enghsh 
and  the  Dutch,  or  hot-headed  knights-errant  hke  the  Portu- 
guese. In  any  event,  they  were  not  strong  enough  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  even  had  the  Mughal  power  at  that  time 
not  been  in  its  prime,  and  even  had  the  idea  entered  their  heads. 

VOL.  II.  D 


50     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

But  in  the  eighteenth  century  France  was  the  greatest 

mihtary  power  in  the  world.    And  her  diplomacy  had  secured 

her  victories  as  splendid  as  those  which  had  been  won  by  her 

arms.     There  was  no  ambitious  project  in  which  she  might 

not  hope  for  success.     All  the  vast  and  magnificent  countries 

of  India  lay  within  her  grasp.     The  other  traders  from  the 

West  could  be  easily  expelled  ;  or  they  might,  with  contemp- 

ftuous  pity,  be  allowed  to  remain  as  simple  merchants.     The 

\French  authority,  once  secure,  could  be  exercised  either  openly 

lor  secretly  ;   the  French  Governor-General  might,  if  he  chose, 

he  Emperor  of  India  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name  ;  or  he  might, 

/with  all  the  essentials  of  command,  still  find  it  convenient  to 

I  yield  a  nominal  allegiance  as  vassal  to  the  puppet  he  had  set 

%ip  on  the  throne. 

Such,  in  substance,  must  have  been  the  thoughts  of  Dupleix 
as  supreme  governor  of  the  French  Indies.  Certain  advan- 
tages he  had  already.  He  was  possessed  of  a  profound  know- 
ledge of  Indian  native  character,  its  love  for  panoply  and 
display,  its  reverence  for  exterior  form,  its  submission  before 
authority.  Able  men  had  preceded  him  :  for  although  the 
directors  of  the  French  East  India  Company  had  been  ineffi- 
cient and  inept  to  a  degree,  they  had  been  served  far  better 
than  they  merited. 

The  same  thing,  in  fact,  was  taking  place  in  India  as  in 
Canada.  In  the  latter  country  the  pioneers  of  France,  scarcely 
assisted  at  all  by  the  home  authorities,  were  carrying  the  name 
and  influence  of  their  coimtry  far  into  the  great  West.  In 
India  a  series  of  wise  governors,  likewise  unaided  from  Paris, 
often  indeed  acting  directly  contrary  to  the  pusillanimous 
orders  sent  out  from  the  capital,  were  estabhshing  close  and 
cordial  relations  with  the  natives.  In  the  East  as  in  the  West, 
the  French  were  the  only  European  nation  that  realised  the 
importance  of  a  good  understanding  with  the  aboriginal  in- 
habitants. The  Portuguese  tried  to  convert  by  force  all  whom 
they  found  ;    the  Dutch  tyrannised  everywhere  they  could  ; 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  51 

the  English  kept  aloof  from  everything  but  commerce.  The 
French,  on  the  other  hand,  whenever  it  was  possible  always 
treated  the  natives  as  friends,  as  allies,  as  equals. 

It  is  true  that  neither  in  Canada  nor  India  did  they  possess 
any  real  stabiHty.  They  placed  government  before  trade, 
the  shadow  before  the  substance ;  and  in  the  end  they  lost 
both.  But  the  faults  of  their  administration,  grave  as  they 
were,  might  have  been  overcome,  had  it  not  been  for  the  fatal 
corruption  and  neglect  that  prevailed  in  France.  It  is  true 
that  their  rulers  overseas,  great  as  they  were,  all  showed  the 
same  defect,  in  being  jealous  of  each  other,  and  in  allowing 
the  heart-burnings  inevitable  in  every  community  to  result 
in  a  lack  of  subordination  and  co-operation  for  the  general 
good  of  the  whole.  That  also  need  not  necessarily  have  ruined 
them.  It  was  the  combination  of  both  causes  that  reduced 
the  French,  from  the  nucleus  of  a  splendid  empire  both  in 
America  and  Asia,  to  a  few  wretched  islands  in  the  one,  and 
an  insignificant  township  in  the  other. 

When  Dupleix  was  appointed  Governor  of  Pondicherri,  the 
French  were  already  practically  the  masters  of  the  south  | 
Coromandel  coast,  and  their  influence  extended  far  into  the 
Kama  tic.  He  quickly  put  the  older  settlement  in  order,  and 
returned  to  Chandanagore,  to  be  installed  there  as  Nawab  of 
that  place.  Returning  to  Pondicherri,  he  used  his  new  title 
as  a  means  of  overawing  the  neighbouring  chieftains  ;  his 
magnificence  dazzled  them,  and  he  was  soon  recognised  as 
sovereign  of  the  South. 

But  the  clouds  of  approaching  war  were  now  gathering  with 
England  in  Europe  ;  and  war  with  England  in  Europe  meant 
also  war  with  England  in  Asia.  Yet  the  directors  of  the  French 
East  India  Company  wrote  that  expenses  must  be  reduced 
by  at  least  one  half,  and  that  all  outlay  on  buildings  and  forti- 
fications must  be  stopped.  To  obey  would  have  been  to 
leave  Pondicherri  defenceless  and  open  to  the  first  attack  of  the 
Enghsh.     The  order,  however,  was  exphcit,  and  in  any  event 


52     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

communication  with  Em^ope  was  too  slow  to  get  it  counter- 
manded in  time,  if  indeed  the  timorous  directors  had  dared  to 
do  so.  Dupleix,  therefore,  at  once  undertook  to  pay  for  the 
entire  fortification  of  the  place  out  of  his  own  pocket ;  at  the 
same  time  economising  within  the  settlement  as  much  as 
possible  by  reducing  salaries,  and  putting  down  those  few 
abuses  which  still  remained.  The  directors  were  glad  to  see 
their  work  done  at  the  expense  of  another,  although  it  involved 
disobedience  to  their  orders  ;  they  sent  word  that  they  were 
'  very  much  pleased  '  with  their  governor  in  the  East :  a  com- 
pliment which  doubtless  was  still  a  source  of  gratification  to 
Dupleix  when  their  stupidity  a  few  years  later  ruined  both 
themselves  and  him. 

But  war  had  by  now  broken  out,  and  he  was  left  to  defend 
Pondicherri  with  but  436  men  in  the  garrison,  one  small  war- 
War  between  ^^^P'  ^^^  great  defensive  works  yet  unfinished, 
England  and  and  no  prospect  of  further  succour  from  Europe. 
France,  1744.  ^^  appeal  was  made  to  the  British  at  Madras 
to  exclude  Asia  from  the  sphere  of  hostihties  ;  but  they 
would  have  none  of  it.  The  two  nations  had  certainly 
traded  side  by  side  for  over  half  a  century  without  a  colHsion  ; 
but  the  British  had  seen  with  alarm  the  rising  star  of  Dupleix, 
and  though  they  had  formed  no  definite  plans  of  resistance, 
they  knew  that  one  of  their  naval  squadrons  was  saihng  for 
the  East,  and  was  even  now  destroying  French  commerce  on 
the  way. 

Dupleix  had  foreseen  the  refusal,  and  he  at  once  prepared 
to  obtain  assistance  from  the  native  chiefs.  Appeal  was  also 
made  to  Labourdonnais,  Governor  of  the  French  colony  at 
Bourbon.  Here  again  the  French  administration  at  Paris 
displayed  its  incapacity.  Still  believing  that  the  war  would 
be  confined  to  Europe,  it  had  refused  the  latter  permission  to 
send  his  forces  to  India,  and  rendered  it  impossible  by  recall- 
ing his  fleet.  In  some  respects  a  man  of  the  same  tempera- 
ment as  Dupleix,  he  disobeyed  ;    and,  having  improvised  a 


THE  EUEOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  53 

fleet  of  his  own  by  commandeering  every  foreign  vessel  that 
put  in  at  Bourbon,  he  set  sail  for  India  with  his  small  garrison. 
After  being  nearly  wrecked  by  the  monsoon,  he  arrived  o£E 
Pondicherri,  drove  away  the  EngKsh  squadron  which  was 
about  to  attack  that  place,  and  saved  the  capital  of  the  French 
Orient. 

Only  one  pohcy  was  now  possible.  Either  the  Enghsh 
must  drive  the  French  out  of  Pondicherri,  or  the  French  must 
drive  the  Enghsh  out  of  Madras ;  and  both  Dupleix  and  Labour- 
donnais  were  determined  that  it  should  be  the  latter.  Dupleix 
thought  it  '  very  easy '  to  do  so  ;  and  he  was  probably  well 
informed  as  to  the  weakness  of  the  Enghsh  position  in 
Madras,  where  Fort  St.  George  was  in  no  condition  to  resist 
him,  the  whole  garrison  consisting  only  of  300  men,  of  whom 
34  were  Portuguese  or  negroes,  and  70  more  were  unfit  for 
duty  ;  while  the  officers  were  three  lieutenants,  of  whom  two 
were  foreigners,  and  seven  ensigns  who  had  risen  from  the 
ranks. 

Labourdonnais  was  equally  anxious  to  capture  the  place ; 
but  the  fear  that  the  British  fleet  he  had  recently  dispersed 
would  return  and  take  him  at  a  disadvantage  made  him  hesi- 
tate. He  had,  as  it  proved,  no  reason  to  fear  ;  but  the  tradi- 
tion of  our  success  at  sea  here  stood  us  in  good  stead,  as  it  has 
so  often  done  elsewhere. 

Eventually  Madras  was  besieged  on  15th  September  1746  ; 
-and  after  six  days  it  '  surrendered  with  precipitation,'  to 
quote  from  the  letter  in  which  Labourdonnais    xhe  Loss 
announced    the    capitulation    to    Dupleix.     The    of  Madras, 
latter  rightly  wished  to  press  the  advantage  to  the  utter- 
most, by  at  once  attacking  the  other  English  stations   in 
India,  and  expelhng  his  rivals  altogether  ;     but  a  host  of 
difficulties  now  arose.     Labourdonnais   was  jealous   of  the 
authority  of  Dupleix,  and  would  obey  neither  appeals  nor 
commands  ;    he  had  already  listened  to  the  suggestions  of  a      / 
ransom,  and  he  fell  before  the  offer  of  a  bribe  from  the  English 


54     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

Governor  of  Madras.     With  insane  treachery,  he  agreed  to 
restore  the  city, 

Dupleix  was  furious,  but  he  could  do  nothing,  for  he  was 
involved  in  a  dispute  with  the  local  Nawab  from  whom  both 
Pondicherri  and  Madras  were  leased.  That  prince  had  re- 
strained the  Enghsh  from  attacking  the  French  two  years 
before  ;  on  an  appeal  from  Madras,  he  had  half-promised 
to  protect  the  English  against  their  enemies  :  and  nothing 
would  appease  him  for  the  violation  of  the  neutrality  which 
all  Europeans  were  supposed  to  preserve  in  foreign  lands. 

In  this  perplexity,  Dupleix,  ready  to  do  anything  rather 
than  restore  Madras  to  the  Enghsh,  assured  the  Nawab  that 
it  had  been  conquered  in  order  to  present  it  to  him.  Still 
Isuspicious  at  such  unwonted  generosity,  the  native  ruler 
[waited  on  events  ;  but  seeing  the  French  flag  continue  to  fly 
I  over  Madras,  as  Labourdonnais  haggled  about  ransom  and  a 
I  personal  bribe,  he  at  last  refused  to  beheve,  and  came  to  the 
I  conclusion  that  he  had  been  doubly  duped. 
I  Another  disaster  now  ensued.  The  French  fleet  was  driven 
sout  to  sea  and  wrecked  by  the  monsoon  ;  while  with  the  few 
I  shattered  vessels  that  alone  were  rescued  Labourdonnais 
f  returned  to  Bourbon. 

'  It  is  probable  that  Dupleix  did  not  regret  the  loss  of  so 
sorry  an  auxihary  :  but  with  him  he  lost  likewise  all  those 
reinforcements  to  whom  he  owed  not  only  the  capture  of 
Madras,  but  also  the  defence  of  Pondicherri  against  the  British 
fleet.  And  at  the  same  time,  more  ill  news  arrived.  Des- 
patches from  Europe  announced  that  war  with  Holland  was 
imminent ;  the  Dutch  therefore  would  soon  be  added  to  the 
number  of  his  foes.  The  patience  of  the  Nawab,  too,  was 
exhausted,  and  he  marched  to  attack  the  French,  who  were 
still  in  Madras. 

A  painful  dilemma  now  confronted  Dupleix.  Should  he 
restore  the  city  to  the  English,  or  resign  it  to  the  Indian  ? 
The  latter  course  was  preferable,  but  there  was  still  another 


THE  EUEOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  55 

alternative,  and  on  that  Dupleix  decided.  He  determined 
to  repudiate  the  arrangement  which  Labom'donnais  had  made 
with  the  English,  and  so  dismiss  them  from  India,  thus  keep- 
ing Madras  in  his  own  hands,  while  risking  a  rupture  with  the 
Nawab. 

So  far  as  the  native  prince  was  concerned,  the  matter  was 
quickly  settled.  The  French  and  Indian  troops  came  into 
conflict  on  4th  November  1746 ;  but  after  a  few  rounds  of 
artillery  had  been  fired  the  natives  fled  in  confusion.  From 
that  day  the  Nawab  submitted  to  Dupleix,  and  not  Dupleix  to 
the  Nawab.  Never  before  in  modern  times  had  the  superiority 
of  European  over  Asiatic  troops  been  so  plainly  demonstrated  ; 
since  then  it  has  seldom  been  questioned  in  India. 

The  battle,  which  took  place  at  St.  Thome  before  Madras, 
relieved  Dupleix  of  his  more  pressing  anxieties  :  he  proclaimed 
Madras  a  French  possession  by  right  of  conquest ;  and  the 
English,  protesting  loudly  at  the  breach  of  faith,  were  forced 
to  abandon  the  Presidency. 

It  was  certainly  unfortunate  for  our  people  that  the  bribe 
accepted  by  Labourdonnais  had  been  wasted  to  no  purpose  ; 
but  Dupleix  could  not  be  expected  to  recognise  the  corrupt 
bargain  of  a  subordinate  at  a  critical  stage  in  the  struggle 
for  India.  Himself  the  soul  of  honour  in  his  dealings  with 
Europeans — he  followed,  as  did  everybody  in  that  age,  a 
different  course  when  negotiating  with  Asiatics — he  was  not 
bound  to  compromise  France  because  one  of  her  sons  had 
failed  her  in  the  hour  of  need.  The  EngUsh  prisoners  were 
marched  to  Pondicherri,  and  thence  they  were  to  be  sent  to 
Europe  ;  but  some  escaped  to  Fort  St.  David,  an  English  pos- 
session south  of  the  French  capital,  and  at  that  time  our  sole 
remaining  station  on  the  Coromandel  coast. 

Dupleix,  determined  to  be  supreme  in  that  part  of  India, 
decided  to  drive  us  from  our  last  refuge.  Had  he  acted  at 
once,  victory  should  not  have  been  difiicult.  Our  garrison 
was  300  men,  with  1000  native  irregulars.      The  alliance  to 


56     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

which  we  had  agreed  with  the  Nawab  since  his  rupture  with 
the  French  was  not  of  much  value.  There  were  no  signs  of 
succour  by  sea,  except  for  some  twenty  men  landed  by  a 
passing  merchant  vessel.  Our  people,  too,  were  depressed  by 
their  late  losses  and  lack  of  success,  and  awed  by  the  con- 
spicuous greatness  of  Dupleix. 

But  there  was  one  vulnerable  point  in  the  French  Governor's 
armour,  and  that  the  Nawab  discovered  by  accident.  He 
was  an  administrator,  a  pohtician,  a  merchant,  a  ruler ;  but 
he  was  not  a  soldier.  He  was  forced  to  rely  for  his  victories 
on  the  fragments  of  an  army  which  he  possessed  :  and  when 
he  wished  to  entrust  the  attack  on  Fort  St.  David  to  Paradis,  ' 
the  young  officer  who  had  routed  the  Nawab  at  St.  Thome, 
the  whole  service  protested  at  the  disregard  of  the  rules  of 
seniority.  A  further  argument  was  found  in  the  fact  that 
Paradis  was  a  Swiss  ;  and  Dupleix  gave  way  for  the  moment. 
The  command  was  given  to  an  old  and  incompetent  general, 
who  allowed  himself  to  be  attacked  unexpectedly  and  defeated 
by  the  Nawab  at  the  outset  of  the  campaign. 

Angry  at  the  loss,  Dupleix  appealed  to  the  patriotism  of 
the  army,  and  Paradis  was  at  last  appointed  to  lead.  But 
meanwhile  over  two  months  had  been  lost,  and  in  that  time 
the  defences  of  Fort  St.  George  had  been  strengthened.  In 
better  condition  to  resist  the  enemy,  fortune  seemed  also  to 
turn  in  our  favour.  At  the  moment  that  the  fort  was  attacked 
an  Enghsh  squadron  arrived  from  Calcutta,  and  the  French 
were  repulsed. 

It  was  now  the  turn  of  Pondicherri  to  be  on  the  defensive. 
Once  again  the  advantage  given  by  sea-power  was  proved,  for 
Dupleix  was  imable  to  prosecute  his  schemes  further  :  indeed, 
had  it  not  been  for  his  energy  and  ability,  and  a  knowledge  of 
defence  which  he  attributed  chiefly  to  his  early  love  of  mathe- 
matics, it  is  probable  that  the  French  Empire  in  India  would 
have  fallen  there  and  then.  Judging  from  the  unskilful,  dila- 
tory, and  jejune  tactics  which  the  majority  of  his  countrymen 


THE  EUEOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  57 

displayed  during  the  next  few  critical  years,  it  seems  certain 
that  the  days  of  Pondicherri  under  French  rule  would  have 
been  few  without  the  inspiring  presence  of  Dupleix.  As  it 
was,  the  English  were  repulsed,  and  retired  in  dejection.  It 
appeared  hopeless  to  fight  against  the  genius  of  this  man. 

It  was  now  the  end  of  the  year  1748.     The  war  had  dragged 
out  its  weary  length  in  Europe,  devoid  of  interest  or  important 
consequences.     Every  nation  was  sick  of  a  struggle    The  Peace 
that  led    nowhere,   and    the    Treaty   of   Aix-la-    of  1748. 
Chapelle  brought  about  a  peace  that  was  in  fact  only  a  tem- 
porary truce.     A  mutual  restitution  of  conquests  was  agreed 
upon ;  and  Cape  Breton,  an  island  that  the  British  Government 
considered  of  little  importance,  on  one  side  of  the  world,  was 
exchanged  for  Madras,  potentially  at  least  of  enormous  value, 
on  the  other.     The  whole  work  of  Dupleix  was  thus  cancelled 
at  a  stroke ;  but,   at  least,   he  had  the  supreme   pleasure    . 
of  being  complimented  by  his  employers  for  the  services  he 
had  rendered.     '  If,'  said  the  directors  of  the  French  East 
India   Company,   '  all  his   other  achievements  merited  the 
thanks  of  the  France  he  had  served  so  well,  his  last  crowning   \ 
success  of  saving  Pondicherri  placed  him  beyond  the  reach   ; 
of  ordinary  applause.'  i 

With  peace  secured,  it  was  hoped  by  both  the  Enghsh  and  | 
French  East  India  Companies  that  unaggressive  trade  in  Asia    \ 
would  continue  as  of  old.     Little  did  they  know  their  servants 
in  the  East ;   little  did  they  reahse  the  conditions  prevailing 
there.     As  in  America,  so  it  was  during  these  years  in  India  : 
there  was  not  room  for  the  two  nations  to  exist  together. 

The  next  three  years  were  those  in  which  the  power  of  France 
was  at  its  zenith  in  India.  The  brilliant  victories  of  Bussy 
m  the  Deccan  consoHdated  French  influence  in  The  zenith 
the  interior.  The  vigorous  poHcy  of  Dupleix  power 
at  Pondicherri  gave  France  the  empire  of  the  1748-51. 
whole  South.  His  puppet  was  placed  on  the  throne  of 
the  Karnatic.     His  authority  was  soon  supreme  over  thirty- 


K 


58     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

five  millions  of  natives.  The  city  of  Dupleix-futtah-abad — 
the  City  of  the  Victory  of  Dupleix — began  to  rise,  as  a 
memorial  of  his  past  actions,  and  as  a  menace  to  those  who 
might  venture  to  oppose  him  in  the  future. 

Meanwhile  the  Enghsh  were  dispirited  and  unsuccessful. 
They,  too,  attempted  to  form  political  alhances  with  the 
natives,  and  endeavoured  to  imitate  Dupleix  in  setting  up 
their  own  candidates  on  Indian  thrones  ;  but  it  was  to  no 
purpose.  They  did  not  yet  understand  the  game  which  they 
afterwards  played  with  such  consummate  skill. 

Through  the  genius  of  one  man,  the  French  seemed  thus 
about  to  sweep  all  before  them  in  India.  Yet  the  dechne  of 
their  power  was  at  hand  ;  and  its  decline  was  as  rapid  as  its 
rise.  No  more  help  arrived  from  France,  since  the  French 
East  India  Company  could  not  see  the  need  of  any.  Practi- 
cally all  the  expenses  of  the  forward  policy  in  India  were 
paid  out  of  the  private  purse  of  Dupleix.  The  one  act  of 
assistance  to  which  the  directors  condescended  went  astray  ; 
a  vessel  containing  reinforcements  of  700  men  was  burnt  at 
sea.  The  Company  became  more  and  more  distrustful  of 
its  energetic  representative  in  the  East,  for  he  was  forsak- 
ing the  peaceful  pursuits  of  trade  for  the  dangers  of  empire  : 
instead  of  concentrating  all  his  attention  on  the  buying  of 
silks  and  spices,  he  was  straying  into  schemes  that  a  Caesar 
or  an  Alexander  might  devise.  As  he  paid  for  his  vagaries 
himself,  the  directors  had  patience  yet  a  Httle  while ;  but 
they  were  suspicious  of  him,  as  only  the  ignorant  and  stupid 
can  be  of  the  far-seeing  and  wise,  for  years  before  his  ultimate 
recall  and  final  betrayal. 

India  was  at  this  time  the  land  of  meteoric  careers,  as 
America  and  South  Africa  became  at  a  later  day  ;  but  the  star 
ciive,  that  was  now  rising  in  the  East  was  not  French. 

1725-74.  Robert  CHve  was  the  son  of  a  small  Enghsh 
landowner  near  Market  Drayton  in  Shropshire.  Born  on 
29th  September  1725,  he  was  in  his  earlier  years  far  from  a 


THE  EUEOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  59 

favourite  of  fortune.  Passionate  and  wayward  in  his  youth, 
looked  on  as  a  booby  by  his  father,  but  as  a  plague  by  the  local 
townspeople,  from  whom  he  levied  a  tribute  of  halfpence  in  con- 
sideration of  not  breaking  their  windows,  lazy  in  school  and  a 
scapegrace  out  of  it,  young  Chve  seemed  destined  to  become 
a  ne'er-do-weel.  '  Fighting,"  said  an  uncle,  '  to  which  he  is 
out  of  measure  addicted,  gives  his  temper  such  a  fierceness 
and  imperiousness,  that  he  flies  out  on  every  trifling  occa- 
sion ' ;  and  soon  he  was  renowned  as  the  daredevil  of  the 
county.  Once  he  chmbed  to  the  top  of  the  lofty  steeple  of 
Market  Drayton  Church,  and  seated  himself  on  the  stone  spout 
near  the  summit,  to  the  terror  of  the  onlookers. 

There  was  nothing  to  be  done  at  home  with  such  a  boy  ; 
and  his  family  gladly  accepted  a  writership  for  him  in  the 
service  of  the  East  India  Company.  He  arrived  at  Madras 
in  1743  ;  but  his  first  months  in  the  East  were  uniformly 
miserable.  '  I  have  not  enjoyed,'  he  wrote,  '  one  happy  day 
since  I  left  my  native  country.  ...  I  must  confess  when 
I  think  of  my  dear  native  England,  it  affects  me  in  a  very 
particular  manner  ...  if  I  should  be  so  far  blest  as  to  revisit 
again  my  own  country,  but  more  especially  Manchester,  the 
centre  of  all  my  wishes,  all  that  I  could  hope  or  desire  for 
would  be  presented  before  me  in  one  view.' 

Nor  was  Chve  reconciled  to  exile  after  the  first  attack  of 
home-sickness  had  spent  its  force.  He  had  no  friends,  and 
was  too  proud  to  make  the  first  advances  to  anybody.  The 
few  people  he  knew  were  card-room  acquaintances,  and  with 
them  he  was  always  quarrelling  and  duelhng.  Twice  he  tried 
to  shoot  himself,  and  it  was  only  when  the  pistol  would  not 
fire  that  he  threw  it  away,  swearing  that  after  all  he  was 
reserved  for  something  great. 

But  as  a  clerk  in  the  Company's  office  at  Madras  he  would 
assuredly  not  have  accomphshed  much.  Had  he  been  com- 
pelled to  remain  a  trader,  he  might  have  thrown  up  his  berth 
in   disgust — several  times  he  nearly  did  so — or  committed 


60     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

suicide  ;  or  he  might,  after  some  years  of  discontent  and 
chafing  against  routine,  have  settled  dovm  into  the  usual 
type  of  eighteenth-century  Anglo-Indian,  occupied  with  petty 
commercial  details,  and  enriching  himself  privately  in  the 
intervals  of  attending  to  the  Company's  business.  Of  the 
two,  the  former  seems  the  more  hkely. 

But  fortunately  for  CUve,  his  lot  was  cast  in  more  stirring 
times.  Madras,  the  station  at  which  he  was  employed,  was 
The  Capture  ^^^en  by  Labourdonnais ;  and  he,  with  many 
of  Arcot,  others  of  the  colony,  escaped  to  Fort  St.  David. 
The  opportunity  had  almost  come  ;  Clive  asked 
and  obtained  his  commission  as  ensign  in  the  army  of  the 
Company.  But  the  conclusion  of  peace  found  him  back 
at  his  desk  ;  again  he  left  it  to  assist  in  quelling  some 
native  disturbances ;  again  he  returned  to  business.  By 
now,  however,  the  French  were  extending  their  Empire 
throughout  India.  The  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  only  enlarged 
the  scope  of  their  operations.  Both  the  ambition  of  Dupleix 
and  the  abihty  of  Bussy  were  fully  recognised  at  Madras  ;  but 
timid  counsels  prevailed  when  measures  of  reprisal  were  sug- 
gested. Hitherto  the  British  had  remained  feebly  on  the 
defensive,  setting  their  native  puppet  against  the  French 
native  puppet,  giving  him  honour  as  the  French  gave  honour, 
calling  him  monarch  of  Southern  India  as  the  French  called 
theirs  also.  But  the  man  whom  the  British  had  chosen  to 
recognise  as  such  had  by  now  no  authority  beyond  Trichin- 
opoli,  and  it  seemed  improbable  that  he  would  possess  even 
that  for  long,  whereas  the  French  nominee  was  saluted  every- 
where else  as  rightful  ruler. 

Chve  saw  that  a  sudden  and  daring  blow  was  necessary, 
if  his  countrymen  were  not  to  lose  all  power  in  the  East ;  and, 
as  captain  and  commissary  to  the  troops,  he  determined  to 
carry  the  war  into  the  enemy's  country  by  attacking  Arcot. 
At  the  head  of  200  English  and  300  natives,  he  marched 
through  wild  storms  to  that  fortress  ;   the  garrison,  taken  by 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  61 

surprise,  evacuated  it  without  a  blow.  This,  however,  was 
little ;  Clive  knew  that  he  would  have  to  undergo  a  siege,  as 
soon  as  the  news  reached  the  French  or  Chunda  Sahib,  their 
Indian  ally. 

Such  preparations  as  were  possible  he  made  ;  but  an  army 
of  10,000  Indians,  backed  by  150  French,  was  soon  upon  him. 
Arcot  was  in  no  good  condition  to  resist.  The  walls  were  in 
ruins,  the  ditches  were  dry,  the  ramparts  too  small  to  carry 
guns,  the  battlements  too  low  to  protect  the  soldiers.  Pro- 
visions were  scanty.  Casualties  had  thinned  the  garrison  ; 
its  total  number  was  but  120  Eiiropeans  and  200  sepoys.  Its 
commander  was  only  twenty-five  years  old,  and  he  had  had 
no  miHtary  education. 

But  Chve,  in  the  phrase  of  Pitt,  was  '  a  heaven-born  general/ 
He  was  able  to  inspire  confidence  and  unity  among  his  men, 
albeit  they  were  of  different  races  and  creeds  ;  an  anecdote 
that  has  been  preserved  of  the  siege  shows  better  than  any 
description  of  their  hardships  in  what  spirit  they  fought.  The 
sepoys  came  to  CHve,  not  in  order  to  complain  of  their  scanty 
rations,  but  to  suggest  that  all  the  grain  in  the  place  should 
be  given  to  the  Europeans,  who  required  more  nourishment 
than  Asiatics.  The  thin  gruel,  they  said,  which  was  strained 
away  from  the  rice,  would  be  enough  for  themselves.  Of 
such  stuff  are  victories  fashioned. 

The  son  of  Chunda  Sahib,  who  was  conducting  the  attack, 
learned  that  a  body  of  Marathas,  half-soldiers,  half-robbers, 
had  been  hired  to  march  to  the  relief  of  Arcot.  He  negoti- 
ated ;  he  offered  bribes,  which  were  scornfully  rejected ; 
he  threatened  to  storm  the  fort,  and  to  put  every  man 
within  it  to  the  sword.  Clive  answered  coolly  that  his 
father  was  a  usurper,  that  his  army  was  a  rabble,  and  that 
he  had  better  think  twice  before  he  sent  cowards  to  attack 
a  breach  defended  by  EngHsh  soldiers. 

Stung  to  fury,  the  young  Indian  determined  to  storm  the 
fort.    Elephants  whose  foreheads  were  armed  with  iron  plates 


62     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

were  put  in  the  van  ;  and  against  a  native  army  they  might 
have  availed.  But  European  musketry  forced  them  back  in 
terror,  and  they  trampled  on  the  army  behind.  In  spite  of 
this  misfortune,  valiant  efforts  were  made  to  carry  a  breach 
in  the  walls.  But  after  three  onslaughts,  it  was  given  up  ;  and 
night  fell,  leaving  the  defenders  anxiously  expecting  another 
attack.  Next  morning,  however,  the  assailants  had  decamped, 
and  the  first  great  English  victory  in  India  was  won. 

The  authorities  at  Madras  were  overjoyed,  as  well  they 
might  be.  Further  successes  followed  ;  the  '  City  of  the 
Victory  of  Dupleix '  was  rased  to  the  ground,  and  the  monu- 
ment which  commemorated  those  victories  destroyed. 

The  spell  of  French  success  was  thus  broken  ;  and  Dupleix, 
though  he  struggled  valiantly  against  misfortune,  though  he 
was  never  greater  than  now,  when  he  was  playing  a  losing 
game,  was  yet  a  beaten  man  from  the  day  that  Olive  took 
Arcot.  That  day  sounded  the  knell  of  French  Asiatic  power  : 
it  saw  the  beginning  of  the  present  British  Empire  of  India. 

The  story  of  the  decline  of  France  is  quickly  told ;  its 
pathos  will  move  men  of  every  nation,  as  we  follow  to  their 
last  sad  end  the  lives  of  Labourdonnais,  Dupleix,  Bussy,  and 
Lally. 

The  French  East  India  Company  longed  above  all  things 
for  peace  in  the  East,  not  realising  that  peace  could  only 
The  Fall  come  when  they  or  the  English  had  been  expelled  : 
orienui  ^^^  ^^  ^^®  maintenance  of  peace  all  their  ends 
Power.  were   directed.     So    anxiously    did   they     desire 

it,  indeed,  that  they  took  counsel  of  their  rivals  in 
London,  the  English  East  India  Company.  The  reply  from 
Leadenhall  Street  naturally  attributed  all  the  evils  of  strife 
to  Dupleix.  It  sounds  incredible,  but  this  decided  the  French 
on  his  recall.  On  2nd  August  1754,  the  order  to  return  arrived 
at  Pondicherri ;  ten  weeks  later  he  sailed  for  Europe,  being 
followed  sorrowfully  to  the  place  of  embarkation  by  the 
whole  French  colony.     His  fortune  was  gone,  for   the   new 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  63 

Governor  of  the  French  Indies  dishonestly  refused  to  recog- 
nise the  enormous  sums  owing  to  Dupleix  by  the  Company. 
Nor  did  he  or  his  family  ever  receive  any  satisfaction  from 
his  late  employers  in  Europe.  He  was  at  first  welcomed 
cordially  enough  at  Paris,  since  it  was  thought  he  might  be 
useful :  but  soon  he  was  neglected,  and  allowed  to  languish 
in  great  poverty  ;  and  thus  he  lingered  nine  years  until  his 
death  in  broken-hearted  despair,  his  misery  a  standing  re- 
proach for  all  time  to  the  ingratitude  of  the  last  corrupt  period 
of  the  French  monarchy.  The  final  words  he  wrote,  com- 
posed three  days  before  he  died  on  10th  November  1764,  reflect 
poignantly  the  bitterness  of  his  spirit.  '  I  have  sacrificed,'  he 
declared, '  my  youth,  my  fortune,  my  life,  to  enrich  my  nation 
in  Asia.  Unfortunate  friends,  too  weak  relations,  devoted  all 
their  property  to  the  success  of  my  projects.  They  are  now  in 
misery  and  want.  I  have  submitted  to  all  the  judiciary  forms. 
I  have  demanded,  as  the  last  of  the  creditors,  that  which  is 
due  to  me.  My  services  are  treated  as  fables.  My  request 
is  denounced  as  ridiculous.  I  am  used  as  the  vilest  of  man- 
kind. I  am  in  the  most  deplorable  indigence  ;  the  httle 
property  that  remained  to  me  has  been  seized.  I  am  com- 
pelled to  ask  for  decrees  for  delay  in  order  not  to  be  cast  into 
prison.' 

The  end  of  Labourdonnais  was  as  tragic.  Recalled  after 
his  failure  in  India,  he  was  thrown  into  the  Bastille ;  not 
indeed  for  his  failure,  but  rather  because  he  had  rendered 
brilhant  services  to  his  country  in  Bourbon.  He  was  even- 
tually released  ;  but  the  cruel  confinement  had  undermined 
his  health  and  broken  his  spirit,  and  he  died  shortly  after- 
wards, in  1753. 

Bussy  returned  after  some  years  to  India  ;  but,  being 
without  support,  he  was  naturally  without  success  ;  and  he 
too  died  with  neither  wealth  nor  reputation.  Lally,  the  last 
of  the  great  Frenchmen  in  the  East,  who  defended  Pondi- 
cherri  in  its  dechning  years  against  the  final  assaults  of  the 


64     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

English,  was  also  condemned  to  death  on  his  return  home, 
and  executed  in  1766. 

There  were  no  others,  nor  could  there  be.  There  is  a  hmit 
beyond  which  men  cannot  sacrifice  themselves  for  their 
country.  That  limit  is  evidently  not  reached  when  simple 
ingratitude  and  neglect  is  the  reward  of  their  life-work,  or 
the  Empire  of  England  w-ould  not  have  been  standing  to-day  ; 
for  few  of  those  who  built  it  have  had  their  labours  recog- 
nised before  their  death,  and  not  all  have  had  them  recog- 
nised after.  But  when  neglect  passes  into  malignance,  when 
reproaches  are  added  to  ingratitude,  when  confiscation  of 
personal  property,  imprisonment,  and  execution  are  added 
to  these  :  then  indeed  is  the  nation  that  can  so  reward  its 
heroes  in  danger  of  losing  all  that  they  have  gained  for  it.  The 
supply  of  empire-builders  is  not  unlimited,  and  they  cannot 
be  produced  at  will ;  when  steps  are  designedly  taken  to 
exterminate  them,  as  was  the  case  in  France  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  it  may  safely  be  predicted  that  neither  they  nor 
the  empire  will  long  survive. 

Pondicherri  was  taken  from  France  on  1st  January  1761 ; 
and  although  it  was  restored  at  the  Peace  of  Paris  two  years 
later,  it  never  rose  again  to  the  same  height  as  under  Dupleix. 
The  great  Governor  of  the  French  in  India  had  against  him, 
in  the  words  of  one  of  the  national  historians,  '  that  crime 
of  genius  which  so  many  have  expiated  by  misery,  by  exile, 
and  by  death  ' ;  and  when  it  had  thrown  away  its  most 
brilliant  servant,  the  French  East  India  Company  could  not 
long  continue  to  exist.  It  was  dissolved  in  1769.  Through 
ignorance  and  incapacity  it  had  lost  an  empire. 

But  the  path  of  Clive  after  the  victory  of  Arcot  was  far 
Further  from  clear.  The  other  English  residents  in 
English         India,  though  pleased  at  his  success,  were  unable 

&11CC6SS6S 

in  Southern  ^o  follow  it  up.  Not  until  his  old  chief.  Major 
India.  Lawrence,   arrived  again  from  home  was  much 

progress  made.     Clive   might  have  retained  the  command 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  65 

had  he  chosen ;  but  with  rare  tact  and  discretion,  he 
resigned  it  to  the  older  officer.  The  two  worked  well  together ; 
each  appreciated  the  other's  abilities  ;  and  one  of  the  most 
pleasing  episodes  in  the  life  of  Clive  was  the  delicacy 
with  which,  when  flushed  with  triumph,  and  the  directors  of 
the  Company  presented  him  with  a  sword  set  in  diamonds, 
he  refused  to  accept  it  unless  a  similar  compliment  was  paid 
to  his  old  commander. 

Everywhere  the  two  now  conquered.  The  southern  coasts 
of  India,  from  being  practically  a  French  possession,  became 
Enghsh.  But  Clive  had  by  this  time  been  nearly  ten  years 
in  the  East ;  and  after  one  last  victorious  expedition  against 
two  French  forts,  in  which  he  commanded  an  army  that  he 
had  first  had  to  train,  an  army  composed  of  500  raw  sepoys  and 
200  recruits  seized  from  the  hells  of  London,  an  army  which 
ran  away  whenever  a  soldier  was  killed,  and  one  of  whose 
number  took  refuge  for  hours  at  the  bottom  of  a  well  when 
a  gun  burst :  after  this  exploit,  his  health  compelled  him  to 
return  to  England. 

But  with  his  departure  from  the  scene  of  action  things 
soon  relapsed  into  their  former  state.  The  merchants  of 
Madras  were  satisfied  to  be  nothing  more  than  merchants ; 
the  military  went  to  sleep  ;  diplomatic  relations  with  the 
native  courts  were  neglected  altogether. 

It  was  at  Calcutta,  however,  that  the  next  danger  to  the 
East  India  Company  arose.  At  that  settlement — it  was 
hardly  yet  worthy  the  name  of  town — our  merchants  had 
never  intended  to  be  anything  but  commercial  men.  Their 
most  warlike  occupation  had  been  to  cut  prices  and  to  kill  com- 
petition. They  had  had  no  conflicts  with  natives  or  Europeans. 
They  had  no  reason  to  suspect  any  menace  to  their  existence. 
The  neighbouring  French  settlement  at  Chandanagore  now 
contained  no  restless  Dupleix  ;  and  experience  showed  that 
such  a  man,  had  he  existed,  would  have  been  recalled  by 
France  before  he  could  do  much  damage  to  her  enemies.     The 

VOL.  II.  E 


66     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

Dutch  were  settled  further  up  the  Hugh  at  Chinsurah.  Be- 
tween them  and  the  English  had  been  waged  many  a  bitter 
war  for  the  right  to  trade ;  but  those  days  were  past,  and 
both  Enghsh  and  Dutch  could  hold  their  own  at  the  peace- 
ful business  that  now  engrossed  them.  Nor  did  there  appear 
to  be  any  ground  for  fearing  native  hostihty.  The  tribute 
agreed  upon  was  paid  punctually  to  the  Nawab,  and  it  formed 
a  not  inconsiderable  part  of  his  revenue.  He  would  not,  it 
seemed  certain,  be  so  foolish  as  to  deprive  himself  of  that. 

But  no  Europeans  save  the  French  knew  the  workings  of 
the  native  mind  ;  and  even  the  French  would  have  been  at 
suraja  ^^ult  with  Suraja  Dowlah.     Succeeding  his  grand- 

Dowiah.  father  as  Viceroy  of  Bengal  in  1756,  at  the  age 
of  less  than  twenty  years,  he  had  hated  the  English  from 
the  first.  It  is  not  apparent  what,  if  any,  ground  he  had 
for  his  hatred  ;  possibly  it  was  simply  a  general  feeling  against 
all  strangers  of  another  race  within  his  dominions,  a  pheno- 
menon that  has  frequently  been  seen  in  others  since  his  time. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  he  hated  the  English  ;  and  he  was  an 
autocrat.  No  native  dared  oppose  his  desires  ;  no  European 
understood  what  those  desires  were.  He  wished  to  expel 
the  merchants  of  the  East  India  Company  ;  and  to  do  so  a 
quarrel  was  necessary.  But  pretexts  for  a  rupture  are  never 
difficult  when  the  rupture  itself  is  decided  on  :  and  in  this 
case  one  was  found  in  the  fact  that,  in  expectation  of  another 
war  with  France,  the  English  settlements  had  been  fortified 
without  special  permission  having  been  obtained  from  the 
Nawab.  In  addition  to  this,  a  rich  native,  hearing  that  the 
Nawab  desired  to  plunder  him,  had  taken  refuge  in  Calcutta, 
and  was  not  given  up  when  demanded. 

The  two  pretexts  sufficed.  Suraja  Dowlah  marched  with 
a  large  army  against  Fort  Wilham,  Calcutta.  The  Governor 
fled.  The  military  commander  of  the  place  followed  a  safe 
example,  and  fled  hkewise.  Those  who  were  left  in  the  fort 
resisted  feebly ;    but  in  a  short  time  it  was  taken,  and  the 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  67 

Nawab  summoned  the  English  prisoners  of  war  before  him 
in  the  chief  hall  of  the  East  India  Company's  factory.  He 
spoke  abusively  of  their  insolence,  and  grumbled  at  the  small 
amount  of  treasure  that  was  found.  By  a  gracious  after- 
thought, however,  he  promised  to  spare  the  Uves  of  his  cap- 
tives, and  retired  to  rest. 

It  was  the  20th  June  1756,  the  night  which  is  immortalised 
in  our  history  by  the  infamous  memory  of  '  the  Black  Hole 
of  Calcutta.'     There  were  146  prisoners,  and  they    The  Black 
were  in  high  spirits,  for  they  had  the  word  of  a    ^°}^  °^ 

-t      •  >  -1-1  C3(lCU.tlX£lj 

prince  that  their  lives  would  be  spared.  It  is  1756. 
true  that  Asiatic  duplicity  was  a  proverb,  but  nobody 
could  beHeve  that  in  such  a  matter  the  Viceroy  of  Bengal 
would  dehver  helpless  prisoners  to  destruction.  The  captives 
were  in  charge  of  the  Nawab's  guards,  and  these  deter- 
mined to  secure  them  during  the  night  in  the  garrison  prison, 
known  by  the  awful  name  of  the  Black  Hole. 

It  was  only  twenty  feet  square.  Such  ventilation  as  there 
was  came  through  small  and  obstructed  air-holes.  At  any  time 
it  would  have  been  an  uncomfortable  confinement  for  one 
person.  In  any  country  it  would  have  been  unhealthy  to 
have  shut  up  many  persons  there  for  a  single  night.  But  in 
the  middle  of  the  summer,  in  a  tropical  country,  to  confine 
146  persons,  of  various  ages  and  of  both  sexes,  in  such  a  place, 
was  not  merely  to  commit  murder  in  cold  blood,  but  to  com- 
mit it  in  as  cruel  a  manner  as  was  possible,  and  to  the  accom- 
paniment of  fiendish  torture  such  as  no  mind  not  utterly 
vicious  could  have  suggested  to  itself. 

The  guards  ordered  the  prisoners  to  enter ;  and  at  first 
the  English  laughed  at  the  absurdity  of  the  idea.  But  it 
was  soon  found  to  be  a  command  that  was  intended  to  be 
obeyed.  The  prisoners  expostulated  and  entreated.  It  was 
without  efiect ;  the  guards  threatened  to  cut  down  all  who 
hesitated,  and  drove  their  captives  into  the  cell.  The  door 
was  shut  and  locked. 


68  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

Immediately  the  tightly-packed  mass  of  humanity  began 
to  struggle,  to  scream,  to  fight  for  air.  Vain  attempts  were 
made  to  burst  the  door,  to  bribe  the  gaolers.  But  it  was  as 
impossible  to  move  the  one  as  the  other.  The  soldiers  answered 
that  nothing  could  be  done  without  the  Nawab's  orders,  that 
he  was  asleep,  that  he  would  be  angry  if  anybody  woke  him. 

The  terror  of  the  prisoners  increased.  They  trampled  on 
one  another.  They  fought  for  places  at  the  small  gratings 
which  served  for  windows,  throu^gh  which  a  little  air  came, 
and  through  which  the  guards  with  cruel  mercy  passed  a 
little  water  to  their  captives. 

They  raved,  they  prayed,  they  blasphemed.  Some  asked 
the  guards  to  fire  among  them,  and  so  to  end  their  sufferings. 
But  the  spectacle  was  too  amusing  for  the  gaolers  to  bring 
it  unnecessarily  to  a  close.  They  held  lights  to  the  bars  of 
the  Black  Hole,  and  laughed  at  the  fearful  struggle  within.  .  .  . 

Towards  morning  it  became  almost  calm.  The  shouting 
gave  way  to  low  moans  and  gasps.  From  many  there  was 
no  more  sound  at  all.  As  the  day  broke,  the  Nawab  roused 
himself,  and  gave  orders  that  the  door  might  be  opened. 

There  were  twenty-three  survivors,  of  whom  one  was  a 
woman.  Weak  and  staggering,  they  could  not  find  a  way 
out  among  the  corpses  of  their  late  companions.  The  soldiers 
had  to  pile  up  the  dead  on  either  side  before  the  hving  could 
emerge.  The  corpses  were  already  showing  signs  of  decay ; 
a  pit  was  dug,  and  they  were  thrown  in  and  covered  up 
without  ceremony. 

The  survivors  were  brought  before  the  Nawab.  There 
were  some  from  whom  nothing  was  to  be  got ;  these  were 
allowed  to  depart  ^vithout  further  injury.  The  woman  was 
placed  in  a  harem.  But  those  whom  the  Nawab  thought 
might  have  treasure  concealed,  the  richer  members  of  the 
English  settlement  whom  it  might  be  worth  his  while  to 
plunder,  were  sent  up  country  in  irons,  lodged  in  sheds,  and 
fed  only  with  grain  and  water  till  they  should  confess.     It 


THE  EUKOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  69 

was  only  the  pleadings  of  Sura j  a  Dowlah's  womenfolk  that 
procured  their  release. 

The  native  guards  were  neither  punished  nor  reprimanded. 
The  Nawab  was  proud  of  his  work  and  sent  letters  to  the 
nominal  Emperor  at  Delhi  vaunting  his  glorious  victory,  in 
memory  of  which  the  name  of  Calcutta  was  to  be  changed 
to  Ahnagur,  the  Port  of  God.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  whole  massacre  was  directly  ordered  by  him  ;  and  the 
wretched  being,  to  whom  cruelty  for  cruelty's  sake  was  the 
spice  of  hfe,  thought  he  had  done  well  in  extirpating  the 
English  from  his  dominions. 

For  a  time  there  was  no  retribution  ;  news  travelled  slowly 
in  those  days,  and  punitive  expeditions  were  not  easy  to 
organise.  But  the  Nawab  soon  began  to  feel  the  want  of 
those  whom  he  had  expelled,  for  his  revenues  diminished 
rapidly.  He  was  considering  whether  his  dignity  would  allow 
the  East  India  Company  to  return  to  its  old  station,  when  a 
different  aspect  of  the  affair  was  brought  to  his  notice. 

The  news  of  the  massacre  reached  Madras  in  August  1756. 
There  was  an  instant  cry  for  vengeance.  It  was  no  time 
for  weighing  justice  with  even  hand  ;  a  deed  so  savage  pro- 
voked feelings  as  savage  among  the  Enghsh. 

Fortunately  Clive  had  just  returned  from  Europe,  and 
within  forty-eight  hours  of  the  news  of  the  Black  Hole  becom- 
ing known  it  was  determined  that  an  expedition  THe 
led  by  him  should  be  sent  against  Suraja  Dowlah.  Revenge. 
In  October  it  sailed  ;  in  December  it  anchored  in  the  Hugh. 
The  Nawab  was  at  Murshidabad,  more  than  a  hundred  miles 
further  up  the  river.  When  he  was  told  of  the  force  that 
was  coming  against  him,  he  laughed  in  derision.  His  ignor- 
ance was  as  great  as  his  cruelty  ;  and  he,  who  refused  to 
believe  that  there  were  ten  thousand  men  in  all  Europe, 
scouted  the  idea  that  an  enemy  should  dare  to  invade  his 
dominions. 

But  Clive  quickly  recovered  Calcutta,  routed  the  garri- 


70     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

sons  near,  and  stormed  and  sacked  the  neighbouring  towns. 
The  Nawab  began  to  be  perturbed  ;  although  he  had  an 
enormous  army,  and  the  whole  force  of  his  opponents  was 
but  900  British  infantry  and  1500  sepoys,  he  offered  to  come 
to  terms.  He  was  prepared  to  restore  the  factory,  and  to  give 
compensation  for  the  injuries  he  had  caused. 

Negotiations  were  opened.  It  was  proved  a  month  or 
two  later  that  the  British  troops  were  able  to  defeat  those 
of  Sura j  a  Dowlah  :  but  the  agents  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany, who  had  been  expelled  from  Calcutta,  were  anxious 
to  start  business  operations  there  again  ;  and  the  news  that 
war  had  broken  out  once  more  between  England  and  France 
made  the  government  of  Madras  anxious  for  the  return  of 
their  army.  Clive  had  hitherto  been  a  soldier  pure  and 
simple  ;  from  what  has  been  said  of  him  it  may  be  imagined 
that  he  had  no  talents  as  a  diplomatist,  and  no  incHnation 
towards  that  profession  ;  and  he  disliked  the  thought  of  treat- 
ing with  a  murderer.  But  the  reasons  which  induced  him  to 
treat  instead  of  to  fight  were  cogent ;  and  his  success  was  as 
great  as  a  statesman  as  it  had  been  as  a  commander.  In  the 
first  instance  he  had  little  to  do  with  the  negotiations,  which 
were  carried  on  between  Watts,  a  servant  of  the  Company, 
and  Omichund,  a  wealthy  Bengali,  the  agent  of  the  Nawab. 

But  Sura  j  a  Dowlah  was  as  fickle  as  he  was  feeble.  He 
advanced  to  threaten  Calcutta  ;  the  moment  he  did  so  he 
regretted  the  step,  fell  back,  and  consented  to  make  peace 
on  whatever  terms  the  EngUsh  might  lay  down.  Before 
these  terms  could  be  put  in  writing  he  intrigued  with  the 
French  at  Chandanagore,  and  invited  them  to  drive  the 
EngHsh  out  of  Bengal.  His  treachery  was  known  both  to 
Clive  and  Watson,  the  admiral  accompanying  the  expedition  ; 
and  they  at  once  determined  on  a  bold  stroke.  They  stormed 
and  took  Chandanagore,  and  all  the  property  and  persons  of 
the  chief  French  establishment  in  Bengal  fell  into  their  hands. 

The  Nawab  was  helpless  ;    but  he  continued  to  vacillate. 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  71 

Again  he  sent  an  abject  submission,  and  a  large  sum  as 
compensation.  Immediately  afterwards  he  asked  the  French 
leader,  Bussy,  to  hasten  from  the  Deccan  to  his  protection. 

His  people  were  disgusted  at  his  folly,  and  alarmed  at 
the  danger  to  which  it  exposed  them.  A  plot  was  hatched 
to  dethrone  the  miserable  Viceroy  of  Bengal,  and  it  was 
communicated  to  the  committee  that  was  now  directing 
EngHsh  affairs  at  Calcutta,  It  was  neither  accepted  nor 
rejected  until  Chve  expressed  his  approval  in  vigorous  terms  ; 
from  that  moment  its  execution  was  decided  upon.  Suraja 
Dowlah  was  to  be  deposed,  and  Mir  Jafiir,  Commander- 
General  of  the  Bengali  army,  was  to  reign  in  his  stead.  In 
return  for  the  active  assistance  of  the  British,  liberal  com- 
pensation and  gifts  were  to  be  given  to  the  Company  and 
its  servants. 

But  Suraja  Dowlah  was  suspicious.  Clive,  however,  was 
equal  to  the  occasion.  He  wrote  in  affectionate  terms  to 
the  Nawab,  calming  his  fears ;  and  by  the  same  courier  he 
sent  a  letter  telling  Mir  Jaffir  to  fear  nothing,  assuring  him 
that  he  would  march  to  his  aid  '  with  five  thousand  men 
who  never  turned  their  backs.'  Omichund  was  also  in  the 
plot,  and  was  likewise  to  receive  his  reward.  But  he  was 
not  satisfied,  and  he  demanded  £300,000  sterling  as  the  price 
of  his  fidelity.  If  it  were  not  given,  he  declared  that  he 
would  betray  the  whole  plot  to  his  master — that  master 
whom  he  had  already  betrayed. 

Again  Clive  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  The  EngHsh 
committee  hesitated,  but  Clive  determined  to  play  off  the 
arts  of  the  Bengali  intriguer  against  himself.  Omichund 
would  not  be  content  unless  an  article  guaranteeing  the 
enormous  sum  he  had  named  was  inserted  in  the  treaty 
between  Mir  Jaffir  and'  the  EngHsh ;  and  he  insisted  on 
seeing  it  with  his  own  eyes.  Two  treaties  were  therefore 
drawn  up,  one  on  white,  the  other  on  red  paper.  The 
former  was  the  genuine  treaty,  and  mentioned  nothing  of 


72     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

.  Omicliund  :  the  latter,  whicli  was  a  worthless  document 
only  intended  to  deceive  him,  contained  an  article  promising 
the  fulfilment  of  his  demands.  But  Watson  could  not  bring 
himself  to  so  degrading  an  action  ;  and  once  more  the  plot 
was  imperilled.  Clive  at  once  forged  the  admirars  name, 
and  Omichund  was  convinced.  The  conspiracy  was  put  in 
motion. 

Into  the  right  or  wrong  of  Olive's  action  in  this  affair  it 
is  scarcely  necessary  to  enter.  He  was  deahng  with  un- 
scrupulous men,  and  he  became  unscrupulous  himself.  In 
a  country  where  deception  was  a  commonplace  of  everyday 
life,  he  deceived  even  Asiatics  at  their  own  game.  His 
dissimulation  has  been  perhaps  excessively  blamed  by  those 
critics  who  have  never  been  themselves  placed  in  a  difficult 
position,  and  who  affect  to  judge  all  things  by  the  canons  of 
morality  which  should  prevail  in  Europe.  To  men  who  are 
playing  for  a  big  stake  allowances  must  be  made,  and  the 
standard  of  ordinary  conduct  has  occasionally  to  be  relaxed. 
But  for  all  that,  and  making  every  concession  that  it  is  just 
and  possible  to  make,  the  conduct  of  Clive  must  be  repro- 
bated. To  put  the  thing  on  its  lowest  ground,  a  few  days 
proved  that  the  elaborate  plot  was  uncalled  for  :  everything 
that  was  won  in  the  year  1757  was  won  by  honesty,  and  it 
would  be  difficult  to  find  an  example  in  any  part  of  EngUsh 
history  where  permanent  success  has  attended  deception. 
The  great  strength  of  our  position  in  dealing  with  other 
nations  is  the  fact  that  our  word  may  be  relied  upon  ;  a 
promise  is  accepted  because  it  is  recognised  that  the  per- 
formance will  follow  in  due  course.  Had  the  methods  used 
by  Clive  towards  Omichund  and  Suraja  Dowlah  been  gener- 
ally imitated,  our  word  would  in  time  come  to  have  had  no 
more  weight  than  that  of  the  Indian  or  Kafir  with  whom 
we  have  treated.  An  imperial  race  can  neither  conquer  nor 
maintain  its  conquests  by  falsehood.  To  argue  the  question 
in  its  ethical  aspects  is  superfluous. 


THE  EUKOPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  73 

But  Clive  was  now  on  the  march.  Sura j a  Dowlah  lay 
with  his  enormous  army  a  few  miles  distant,  and  it  was 
time  for  Mir  Jafiir  to  throw  ofi  the  disguise  of  loyalty,  and 
to  assist  the  Enghsh  against  the  Nawab.  He,  however, 
still  hesitated ;   at  the  last  moment  he  sent  evasive  answers. 

It  was  an  hour  of  great  peril  for  Clive  and  his  army.  The 
force  opposed  to  him  was  40,000  infantry,  armed  with 
musketry  and  artillery,  and  15,000  cavalry  from  piassey, 
the  hardier  races  of  the  North.  Against  these  ^''^'^• 
Clive  had  hardly  a  thousand  English  troops  and  two  thousand 
sepoys.  He  did  not  indeed  know  the  exact  number  of 
the  enemy ;  but  he  knew  that  the  disparity  was  over- 
whelming ;  that  if  he  were  defeated  neither  he  nor  any 
of  his  men  would  ever  return  ahve ;  that  they  would  be 
exposed  to  the  most  hideous  tortures  the  barbarian  Nawab 
could  devise.  That  his  personal  courage  failed  is  unlikely  : 
but  a  defeat  meant  not  only  his  own  destruction,  but  also 
the  final  loss  of  the  Enghsh  settlements  in  Bengal,  perhaps 
in  all  India. 

For  the  first  and  last  time  in  his  life,  Clive  shrank  for  a 
while  from  responsibihty.  He  called  a  council  of  war ; 
and  the  majority  pronounced  in  favour  of  retreat.  CHve 
declared  his  concurrence.  Many  years  afterwards,  he  said 
that  he  had  never  consulted  but  one  council  of  war,  and 
that  had  he  taken  its  advice  the  Enghsh  would  never  have 
been  masters  of  Bengal. 

Almost  immediately  after  the  discussion,  Clive  was  him- 
self again.  He  retired  alone  under  the  shade  of  some  trees, 
and  rested  there  the  space  of  one  hour  in  deep  thought. 
When  he  returned  to  the  camp  he  had  determined  to  put 
everything  to  the  hazard ;  and  orders  were  given  that  the 
advance  should  be  made  early  on  the  following  day. 

Next  morning  the  river  which  lay  between  the  British  and 
Suraja  Dowlah  was  crossed,  and  a  long  day's  march  brought 
the  armies  within  a  mile  of  each  other. 


74     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEESEAS 

Encamping  in  a  grove  of  mango-trees  near  Plassey,  Clive 
could  not  sleep  ;  the  horrible  din  of  drums  and  cymbals 
from  the  Nawab's  camp  was  kept  up  the  whole  night ;  and 
the  English  general  would  have  been  more  than  human  had 
he  not  been  anxious  about  the  morrow,  the  day  which  was 
to  decide  the  fate  of  India. 

Suraja  Dowlah,  we  are  told,  was  also  oppressed  by  fears  : 
but  they  were  of  a  different  kind.  He  was  distracted  by 
thoughts  of  the  terrible  retribution  now  being  meted  out  to 
him.  Always  weak  and  timorous,  he  dreaded  the  small 
force  of  Clive  far  more  than  Clive  dreaded  his  huge  native 
army ;  always  cruel,  he  now  showed  himself  a  coward. 
Distrusting  every  one  who  approached  him,  he  was  yet 
afraid  to  be  left  alone ;  fearing  treachery  among  his  officers, 
he  feared  also  to  take  any  step  to  discover  whether  it  existed. 

As  the  day  dawned  on  23rd  June  1757,  one  year  and  three 
days  after  the  massacre  of  Calcutta,  the  battle  began.  The 
massed  battalions  of  Bengal  began  to  move  towards  the 
grove  where  lay  the  English  and  their  native  aUies.  A 
cannonade  on  both  sides  commenced  the  actual  conflict ; 
but  the  artillery  of  the  Nawab  did  hardly  any  damage, 
while  our  guns  mowed  his  men  down  in  quick  succession. 
Some  of  his  chief  officers  fell,  and  disorder  spread  through 
the  ranks. 

Suraja  Dowlah  was  in  a  state  of  abject  terror  :  and  when 
somebody,  endowed  with  as  little  courage  as  himself,  sug- 
gested the  expediency  of  a  retreat,  the  advice  was  seized 
with  alacrity.  The  order  was  given  ;  and  it  decided  the 
fate  of  the  wretched  prince.  Clive  snatched  at  the  occasion, 
and  at  once  commanded  an  advance.  The  native  army 
now  became  a  mob  ;  the  few  Frenchmen  who  valiantly  stood 
their  ground  were  borne  down  by  the  weight  of  their  flying 
allies  rather  than  by  the  British  attack. 

In  an  hour  all  was  over.  The  great  army  of  Bengal  was 
scattered     to     the     four    winds    of     heaven :     500     were 


THE  EUROPEAN  INVASION  OF  ASIA  75 

killed  ;  and  the  camp,  guns,  baggage,  wagons,  and  general 
paraphernalia  of  war  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  English. 
Our  loss  was  only  22  killed  and  50  wounded. 

Such  was  the  battle  of  Plassey,  the  second  great  event  in 
the  British  conquest  of  India.  The  first  step  had  been  the 
capture  of  Arcot,  which  began  the  conquest  of  the  South  ; 
the  second  gave  England  the  extremely  valuable  province  of 
Bengal.  The  first  broke  the  power  of  the  French,  for  ever 
as  it  proved,  although  it  was  not  expected  to  do  so  at  the 
time  ;  the  second  laid  the  foundation  of  British  supremacy 
in  the  East. 

But  the  full  import  of  the  victory  was  not  yet  reahsed. 
It  was  evident  indeed  that  it  gave  us  Bengal,  that  the  East 
India  Company  was  no  longer  in  the  position  of  a  tenant 
occupying  lands  and  offices  and  transacting  business  from 
those  lands  and  offices,  in  precisely  the  same  way  that  an 
Enghsh  merchant  might  do  in  London  ;  it  was  evident  that 
the  Company  was  henceforth  superior  to  the  Nawab,  and 
not  as  hitherto  the  Nawab  to  the  Company.  It  was  seen 
that  the  Nawab  must  become  a  puppet,  to  be  set  up  or  pulled 
down  according  as  he  was  obedient  to  his  masters  or  not ; 
but  it  was  not  seen,  and  in  fact  it  could  not  yet  be  seen,  that 
the  victory  of  Plassey  opened  up  to  England  the  whole 
empire  of  India,  and  that  all  those  vast  territories  which 
had  never  seen  a  European,  all  those  inland  kingdoms 
which  had  kept  haughtily  aloof  from  the  foreign  invaders, 
would  in  time  acknowledge  the  British  power,  and  become 
integral  parts  of  the  British  dominions  overseas. 

The  series  of  wars,  in  which  Arcot  and  Plassey  were  the 
first  achievements,  occupied  more  than  a  century,  and  are 
not  even  now  brought  to  a  final  conclusion  ;  but  the  East 
India  Company  realised  nothing  of  the  future  at  the  time, 
and,  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  Clive  did  not  himself  see 
very  much  further  than  his  masters.  The  Company  wished 
to  remain  simple  traders,  and  Clive  wished  to  consolidate 


76     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

what  he  had  secured.  The  instinct  of  the  English  in  India 
was  fundamentally  opposed  to  the  construction  of  magnificent 
schemes  such  as  animated  the  French ;  it  is  curious  and 
instructive  that  in  the  end  the  English  accomplished  far 
more  than  Dupleix  had  ever  dreamed  of  doing. 


Book   VII 

THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  : 

1757-1828 

CHAPTER  I 

CLIVE  AND  HIS  POLICY  :  1757-67  ^ 

The  immediate  results  of  Plassey  were  small,  except  in  the 
personal  sense  that  the  victory  enriched  the  servants  of  the 
East  India  Company  in  Bengal.  Clive  at  once  marched  on 
Murshidabad,  which  readily  opened  its  gates  to  the  conqueror. 
There  he  took  up  his  residence  in  a  palace,  whose  garden  was 
so  large  that  the  whole  of  the  five  hundred  troops  which 
accompanied  him  could  encamp  within  it.  Mir  JafEir  was 
instantly  installed  as  Nawab. 

The  wretched  Suraja  Dowlah,  a  prey  to  his  own  terrors,  had 
escaped  from  the  field  of  Plassey  to  Murshidabad  :  but,  fear- 
ful of  the  vengeance  of  Chve,  he  had  already  left  his  own 
capital.  Disguised  in  a  mean  dress,  and  taldng  with  him 
only  a  favourite  concubine  and  a  eunuch,  he  let  himself  down 
at  night  from  a  window  in  his  palace,  and  embarked  on  the 
river  for  Patna.  He  was  recognised  and  forced  to  return. 
Exposed  to  the  insults  of  Mir  JafEir,  he  writhed  before  his  late 
minister  in  convulsions  of  fear,  and  implored  with  tears  and 

1  Authorities. — Hunter,  Orme,  and  Mill,  Macaulay's  Essays,  and 
Malcolm's  Life  of  Clive,  as  before.  The  pamphlets  and  records  relating 
to  the  East  India  Company.  The  violent  prejudice  of  James  Mill  against 
Clive  renders  him  an  unsafe  guide  except  for  the  bare  facts  of  Indian 
history  during  this  period,  while  Malcolm,  on  the  contrary,  is  full  of 
undigested  hero-worship. 

77 


78     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

lamentations  the  mercy  to  which  he  himself  had  always  been 
a  stranger. 

Mir  Jaffir  betrayed  some  indecision  ;  but  his  son  would  not 
hear  of  clemency.  Suraja  Dowlah  was  taken  to  a  secret 
chamber  and  there  assassinated. 

Of  this  act  the  English  were  ignorant  till  afterwards  :  for 
the  time  being  the  Company's  servants  were  fully  occupied 
in  filling  their  pockets.  Eight  hundred  thousand  pounds, 
in  coined  silver,  were  sent  down  to  Fort  William.  The  whole 
of  the  royal  treasury  was  thrown  open  to  CHve  ;  he  accepted 
between  two  and  three  hundred  thousand  pounds  for  his 
private  purse.  Even  then  considerable  disappointment  was 
expressed  that  Murshidabad  did  not  furnish  greater  wealth  : 
but,  in  mitigation  of  the  avaricious  spirit  thus  displayed,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  boundless  wealth  of  the  Orient 
was  still  proverbial.  Experience  had  not  yet  taught 
Europeans  to  deduct  the  necessary  discount  from  Eastern 
hyperbole ;  and,  however  great  had  been  the  booty,  it 
would  certainly  have  fallen  short  of  expectations. 

Meanwhile,  the  news  of  the  outbreak  of  the  Seven  Years' 
War  had  been  received  in  Madras  ;  and  the  British  officials 
there,  dreading  as  before  a  French  attack  on  the  settlement, 
sent  a  positive  command  to  CUve  to  return  with  the  army. 
He  disobeyed  the  order,  and  kept  the  troops.  Again,  a 
despatch  arrived  from  London,  in  which  the  directors  laid 
down  new  rules  for  the  Company's  stations  in  Bengal.  The 
rules  were  unsuitable  in  any  case  ;  they  were  drawn  up  before 
the  result  of  Plassey  was  known  in  Leadenhall  Street,  and 
they  made  no  mention  of  Chve. 

In  these  circumstances,  it  was  obvious  that  they  could  not 
be  enforced  :  and  the  officials,  who  were  designated  in  the 
despatch  as  constituting  the  new  authorities  over  the  British 
settlements  in  Bengal,  felt  justified  in  disregarding  their 
instructions.  Much  to  their  credit,  they  induced  Chve  to 
retain  the  command.     He  did  so  ;   and  the  next  despatch 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  79 

from  England  expressed  the  higli  approval  of  the  directors 
at  his  success  in  Bengal,  which  was  rewarded  by  his  appoint- 
ment as  Governor  of  all  their  stations  in  that  Presidency. 

But  the  newly  acquired  British  power  in  the  East  was  still 
menaced  i'">  various  directions.  The  French,  under  Bussy,  were 
yet  strong  in  the  Deccan,  and  the  Seven  Years'  .^j^g  British 
War  was  at  its  height.  After  guerilla  combats  become  the 
between  France  and  England  in  the  south  of  European 
India,  where  for  some  time  the  chief  episodes  Power  in 
were  the  plundering  by  both  sides  of  defenceless  ^  ^^" 
native  villages,  the  French  commander,  Lally,  arrived  from 
Europe  with  a  force  which,  in  the  opinion  of  Chve,  was 
large  enough  to  threaten  all  the  Enghsh  East  India  Com- 
pany's possessions.  He  immediately  took  the  offensive : 
and  his  exploits,  when  joined  with  the  brilhant  achieve- 
ments of  Bussy  in  the  Deccan,  might  reasonably  have  been 
expected  to  win  back  the  empire  of  Dupleix.  Fort  St, 
David  fell  at  once  :  but  all  the  old  faults  of  the  French 
East  India  Company  were  again  displayed.  No  prepara- 
tions for  the  campaign  had  been  made  at  Pondicherri :  '  I 
found  not,'  said  Lally,  '  the  resource  of  a  hundred  pence  on 
my  arrival.'  None  of  his  countrymen  would  give  him  credit. 
None  of  them  showed  any  zeal  for  the  national  cause,  and 
dissensions  and  jealousies  soon  divided  the  garrison.  Lally 
attempted  the  capture  of  Madras,  but  with  the  Enghsh  fleet 
protecting  that  city  his  position  became  impossible.  He 
was  forced  to  fall  back,  and  his  failure  became  a  subject  of 
joy  to  his  unpatriotic  personal  enemies  at  Pondicherri.  His 
dreams  of  restoring  the  French  name  in  the  East  began  to 
fade  :  although  he  had  written  that '  It  is  the  whole  of  British 
India  which  now  remains  for  us  to  attack,'  it  was  soon  evident 
that  the  internal  weakness  of  the  French  would  prevent  any- 
thing but  occasional  sallies  on  his  part. 

Lally 's  prestige  began  to  decline  among  the  army,  and 
dangerous  signs    of    mutiny  appeared  ;    he  was  finally  de- 


80     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

feated  by  Eyre  Coote  before  Wandewash  in  1760.  Pondi- 
cberri  capitulated  in  the  following  January,  and  the  last 
stronghold  of  the  French  in  India,  the  hill  fortress  of  Gingi, 
succumbed  a  few  months  later.  '  That  day,'  says  Orme, 
'  terminated  the  long  hostility  between  the  two  rival  European 
powers  in  Coromandel,  and  left  not  a  single  ensign  of  the 
French  nation  avowed  by  the  authority  of  the  government 
in  any  part  of  India.' 

The  Dutch  Empire  had  already  fallen.  Letters  had  been 
sent  from  Chinsurah,  their  station  in  Bengal,  urging  the 
authorities  at  Batavia,  the  capital  of  the  Dutch  East  Indies, 
to  fit  out  an  expedition  which  might  balance  the  power  of  the 
English  in  India.  The  advice  was  attended  to,  and  seven 
Dutch  vessels  from  Java  arrived  unexpectedly  in  the  Hugli. 
The  force  on  board  was  greater  than  that  at  the  disposal  of 
CHve,  for  he  had  sent  the  greater  part  of  his  troops  to  assist 
in  the  struggle  against  the  French.  A  serious  difficulty 
menaced  him,  for  Holland  was  not  at  war  with  Britain  : 
and  although  the  combatants  of  the  East  took  httle  notice 
of  the  treaties  of  the  West,  the  British  Government  might 
impeach  him  for  an  act  of  private  hostilities  against  a  friendly 
nation.  But  Clive  knew  that  the  traitor  Mir  Jaffir  was  in 
secret  communication  with  the  Dutch  at  Chinsurah ;  and, 
had  he  allowed  the  two  to  co-operate,  the  British  power  in 
Bengal  would  have  been  gravely  threatened.  The  latter 
danger  seemed  greater  than  the  former,  and  his  decision 
was  quicMy  made.  The  Dutch  attempted  to  pass  up  the 
river  ;  they  were  stopped  by  the  EngHsh,  A  battle  took 
place  on  both  land  and  water  ;  the  Dutch  were  absolutely 
defeated,  their  ships  taken,  and  their  army  routed.  Chin- 
surah was  besieged,  but  it  could  not  hold  out  alone.  The 
heads  of  the  station  were  forced  to  come  to  terms,  and  it 
was  agreed  that  Holland  might  retain  the  place,  on  condi- 
tion that  no  fortifications  were  raised,  and  no  troops  save 
the  necessary  police  maintained.     Disobedience  was  to  be 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  81 

punished  by  the  instant  expulsion  of  the  Dutch  from  the 
country. 

The  English  East  India  Company  had  now  no  other  rivals 
in  India.  The  name  of  Clive  and  his  victories  was  enough  to 
prevent  any  native  insurrection.  An  amusing  but  signifi- 
cant anecdote  that  has  been  preserved  well  illustrates  the 
awe  with  which  he  was  regarded.  The  Nawab  Mir  Jaffir  had 
occasion  to  reprimand  one  of  his  chiefs,  who  allowed  his 
followers  to  engage  in  a  brawl  with  some  of  the  Company's 
sepoys.  '  Are  you  yet  to  learn/  he  said  to  the  delinquent, 
'  who  that  Colonel  CUve  is,  and  in  what  station  God  has  placed 
him  ?  '  The  answer  was  short  and  expressive.  '  I  affront 
the  Colonel ! '  said  the  chief.  '  I,  who  never  get  up  in  the 
morning  without  making  three  low  bows  to  his  jackass  !  ' 

A  conspiracy  of  native  chiefs  against  Mir  Jaffir,  who  was 
on  all  sides  rightly  regarded  as  a  mere  tool  of  the  English,  was 
immediately  suppressed ;  and  that  contemptible  prince  in 
gratitude  granted  CUve,  as  a  personal  present,  the  quit-rent 
of  the  East  India  Company's  lands  in  Bengal.  Its  value 
was  little  less  than  thirty  thousand  pounds  a  year.  Chve 
was  now  one  of  the  richest  men  in  the  world  ;  and  a  few 
months  later  he  sailed  for  England,  in  the  year  1760,  to  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  his  wealth,  and  to  receive  the  honours,  rewards, 
and  adulation  which  there  awaited  him. 

Few  men  had  ever  deserved  better  of  their  country.  Since 
his  time  there  has  been  no  lack  of  able  soldiers  and  states- 
men to  defend  and  enlarge  our  Asiatic  possessions  :  before 
him  there  was  not  one  who  was  capable  of  doing  so.  It  was 
he  who  discovered  the  talent  that  lay  dormant  in  such  men  as 
Coote  and  Hastings ;  it  was  he  who  created  the  tradition  of 
British  supremacy  in  the  East :  in  a  word,  it  was  he,  and  he 
alone,  who  laid  the  foundation  of  the  British  Indian  Empire. 

But  the  greatness  of  Chve  cannot  be  appreciated  at  its 
proper  value  till  we  have  seen  to  what  a  depth  of  shame  the 
East   India   Company  in   India   sank   during   his   absence, 

VOL.  II.  F 


82     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

and  the  state  of  anarchy  and  robbery  from  which  he 
rescued  it  after  his  return.  We  have  said  that  he  created 
The  English  ^^®  tradition  of  British  supremacy ;  and  since 
Tyranny,  his  time  our  power  in  the  East  has  only  once 
been  seriously  endangered.  But  he  had  created 
no  system  of  administration  ;  he  left  behind  him  no  tradition 
of  government.  It  was  still  a  recognised  rule  that  the 
Company  was  to  get  as  much  and  to  give  as  little  as  it  could, 
and  its  servants  endeavoured  not  misuccessfuUy  to  do  like- 
wise. The  natives  of  India  were  notoriously  evasive  and 
deceptive  in  their  dealings  with  foreigners,  and  the  Company 
had  too  often  followed  their  example.  Chve  himself  had  done 
so  on  occasion  ;  and  his  acts,  if  not  his  words,  proved  that 
he  thought  deceit  no  crime  when  practised  towards  a  native 
of  India.  The  tradition  of  British  supremacy  in  India  was 
indeed  maintained  during  his  absence  :  nothing  could  undo 
that  save  the  evacuation  of  our  possessions  there  ;  but  there 
was  as  yet  no  sense  of  responsibility  towards  our  new 
subjects,  no  feeling  that  the  privileges  of  rule  entailed  duties 
equally  great  towards  those  whom  we  governed. 

Clive  was  not  a  particularly  scrupulous  man,  and  he  would 
scarcely  have  hesitated  to  take  any  step  that,  in  his  opinion, 
advanced  the  interests  of  his  employers  :  but  at  least  he 
embarked  on  no  frauds  or  extortion  to  serve  his  personal 
ends.  He  was  not  rapacious  or  avaricious,  although  he  had 
accepted  gifts  that  strictly  he  should  have  refused  ;  but 
those  who  came  after  him  were  to  show  to  what  tyranny 
men  can  stoop  when  they  are  not  restrained  by  any  dread 
of  future  retribution  or  any  code  of  personal  honour. 

The  Enghsh  power  in  Bengal  was  supreme.  In  the  south 
of  India  it  was  less  firmly  rooted,  but  still  no  native  would 
have  dared  to  question  it.  Certainly  none  of  the  peaceful 
Bengalis  would  venture  to  rebel,  and  Bengal  was  now  by  far 
the  most  important  British  possession  in  the  East.  The 
Nawab  Mir  Jaffir  was  a  puppet  in  our  hands  ;  but  soon  after 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  83 

the  departure  of  Clive  he  displeased  the  governing  Council 
at  Calcutta.  He  was  deposed  ;  and  another  puppet,  Mir 
Cossim,  reigned  in  his  stead.  But  the  latter  was  not  the 
negligible  quantity  that  his  predecessor  had  been :  and 
therefore  he  too  was  deposed,  and  Mir  JafEir  was  again  made 
Nawab. 

From  each  revolution  the  servants  of  the  Company  took 
their  profit.  The  treasury  was  in  their  hands,  and  they 
helped  themselves  to  the  utmost.  The  people  were  ground 
down  by  taxation ;  and  every  few  months  a  fresh  turn  was 
given  to  the  screw,  as  some  new  Englishman  arrived  at 
Calcutta  to  make  a  fortune. 

But  these  evils  were  the  least  that  the  wretched  natives 
had  to  bear.  The  private  trade  of  the  country  was  now 
engrossed  by  the  Company's  servants  :  the  profitable  com- 
merce in  salt,  tobacco,  and  the  betel-nut  was  all  seized  by 
them.  They  bought  and  sold  at  whatever  prices  seemed 
best  to  them.  They  refused  to  pay  the  transport  duties  ; 
if  a  toll-collector  complained,  he  was  taken  and  imprisoned 
in  one  of  the  Company's  stations.  . 

Vansittart,  the  Governor,  was  appealed  to ;  but  he  was 
too  weak  to  end  the  abuse.  He  merely  replied  that  he  was 
'  unwilling  to  give  up  an  advantage,'  and  he  was  unable  to 
make  others  give  it  up.  Warren  Hastings  was  the  only 
member  of  the  Council  who  wished  to  stop  the  robbery ; 
but  alone  he  was  unable  to  do  anything,  and  his  colleagues 
were  all  occupied  in  getting  rich  as  quickly  as  they  could. 

Such  tyranny  as  this  had  never  been  known  in  India. 
Other  governments  had  been  rapacious,  had  robbed  their 
subjects,  had  tortured  them,  had  put  them  to  death.  The 
Enghsh  repression  was  of  a  different  character.  It  cared 
nothing  about  the  pohtical  complexion  of  the  country.  It 
is  not  on  record  that  a  single  act  of  torture  was  committed, 
or  that  one  man  was  executed  mijustly.  But  for  that  very 
reason  the  tyranny  was  the  more  terrible,  for  its  sole  object 


84     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

was  to  extort  every  available  rupee  from  the  pockets  of  the 
Bengalis,  and  to  place  them  in  the  pockets  of  the  Company's 
servants.  The  rapacity  was  merciless,  and  it  was  miending  ; 
for  so  soon  as  one  foreigner  had  accumulated  a  fortune,  he 
returned  to  England,  and  another  took  his  place,  whose 
object  in  coming  was  the  same.  Complaint  was  useless,  for 
complaint  could  only  be  made  to  those  who  did  the  wrong. 
Rebellion  was  impossible,  for  the  lesson  of  Plassey  was  not 
forgotten,  and  the  Company's  generals  who  still  remained 
in  India  were  worthy  successors  of  Clive. 

The  misery  of  the  land  is  well  summed  up  by  the  Musalman 
historian  of  the  times  in  his  description  of  the  Enghsh  tyrants. 
'  It  must  be  acknowledged,'  he  says,  '  that  this  nation's 
presence  of  mind,  firmness  of  temper,  and  undaunted  bravery 
are  past  all  question.  They  join  the  most  resolute  courage 
to  the  most  cautious  prudence ;  nor  have  they  their  equals 
in  the  art  of  ranging  themselves  in  battle  array  and  fighting 
in  order.  If  to  so  many  mihtary  quahfications  they  knew 
how  to  join  the  arts  of  government ;  if  they  exerted  as 
much  ingenuity  and  solicitude  in  relieving  the  people  of  God, 
as  they  do  in  whatever  concerns  their  mihtary  affairs,  no 
nation  in  the  world  would  be  preferable  to  them,  or  worthier 
of  command.  But  the  people  under  their  dominion  groan 
everywhere,  and  are  reduced  to  poverty  and  distress.  0 
God,  come  to  the  assistance  of  thine  afflicted  servants,  and 
deliver  them  from  the  oppressions  which  they  suffer.' 

Five  years  the  tyranny  continued  unchecked.  But  the 
directors  of  the  East  India  Company  were  already  becoming 
alarmed  at  the  condition  of  their  oriental  possessions.  A 
conspiracy  at  Patna  had  necessitated  the  despatch  of  Hector 
Munro  from  Bombay  ;  and  a  dangerous  sepoy  mutiny  in 
the  ranks  was  only  quelled  by  his  firmness.  The  war  in  the 
Patna  district  proved  long  and  costly.  '  The  Company,' 
wrote  one  of  the  directors,  '  was  sinldng  under  the  burden, 
and  obliged  to  borrow  great  sums  off  their  servants  at  eight 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  85 

per  cent,  interest,  and  even  with  that  assistance  were  unable 
to  carry  on  the  war  and  their  investment,  but  obliged  to 
send  their  ships  half  loaded  to  Europe/  Mihtary  authority 
had  become  relaxed,  and  only  terror  now  kept  down  the 
insubordination  of  the  sepoys.  The  Company  was  in 
financial  difficulties,  yet  its  servants  returned  home 
millionaires. 

The  origin  of  the  evil  was  well  understood :  and  in  a  per- 
emptory command,  dated  8th  February  1764,  the  directors 
endeavoured  to  stop  it.  '  One  grand  source  of  the  disputes, 
misunderstandings,  and  difficulties,'  said  they,  '  which  have 
occurred  with  the  country  government,  appears  evidently 
to  have  taken  its  rise  from  the  unwarrantable  and  licentious 
manner  of  carrying  on  the  private  trade  by  the  Company's 
servants  ...  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Subah,  both  with 
respect  to  his  authority  and  the  revenues  justly  due  to  him  ; 
the  diverting  and  taking  from  his  natural  subjects  the  trade 
in  the  inland  parts  of  the  country,  to  which  neither  we,  nor 
any  persons  whatsoever  dependent  upon  us,  nor  under  our 
protection,  have  any  manner  of  right.  In  order,  therefore, 
to  remedy  all  these  disorders,  we  do  hereby  positively  order 
and  direct  that,  from  the  receipt  of  this  letter  a  final  and 
effectual  end  be  forthwith  put  to  the  inland  trade.' 

But  such  measures  were  of  no  use  while  the  salaries  of  the 
Company's  servants  in  the  East  remained  inadequate.  It 
was  not  to  be  expected  that  men  would  exile  The  Return 
themselves  from  home  for  several  years  to  gain  ofcuve. 
the  paltry  remuneration  which  the  directors  thought  suffi- 
cient. It  was  absurd  to  suppose  that  they  would  give 
up  their  profits  in  trade,  even  though  that  trade  was 
illegitimate,  when  those  profits  were  the  sole  attraction 
that  brought  them  to  India,  and  the  sole  reason  that  kept 
them  there.  The  directors'  commands  were  contemptuously 
disregarded,  and  the  situation  became  more  and  more 
dangerous.     At  length  the  proper  step  was  taken.    In  spite 


86     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

of  the  opposition  of  enemies  on  the  board  of  the  Company 

in  London,  it  was  recognised  that  CUve  was  the  one  man 

who  could  cope  with  the  problem ;    and  he  was  appointed 

Governor  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  British  possessions 

in  Bengal.     After  heated  disputes  and  protracted  negotiations 

he  sailed  ;  and  in  May  1765  he  reached  Calcutta. 

The  task  before  him  was  one  of  extraordinary  difficulty. 

He  himself  called  it  a  cleansing  of  the  Augean  stable.   '  What 

do  we  hear  of,  what  do  we  see,'  he  wrote,  '  but 
His  Reforms.  ,  '  .  ,      ,        .  ' 

anarchy,  contusion,  and  what  is  worse,  an  almost 

general  corruption."  To  an  intimate  friend  he  expressed  him- 
self with  a  depth  of  feeling  to  which  he  seldom  gave  vent. 
'  Alas  !  how  is  the  English  name  sunk  !  I  could  not  avoid 
paying  the  tribute  of  a  few  tears  to  the  departed  and  lost 
fame  of  the  British  nation — irrecoverably  so,  I  fear.  How- 
ever, I  do  declare,  by  that  great  Being  who  is  the  searcher 
of  all  hearts,  and  to  whom  we  must  be  accountable  if  there 
be  a  hereafter,  that  I  am  come  out  with  a  mind  superior  to 
all  corruption,  and  that  I  am  determined  to  destroy  these 
great  and  growing  evils,  or  perish  in  the  attempt.' 

Unfortunately  the  powers  granted  him  were  loosely  and 
jesuitically  worded,  and  were  at  once  contested  by  the 
Council  at  Calcutta.  '  I  was  determined,  however,'  he  said 
afterwards  in  his  great  speech  in  his  oAvn  defence  before 
Parhament,  '  to  put  the  most  extensive  construction  upon 
them,  because  I  was  determined  to  do  my  duty  to  my 
country.' 

Glive  had  not  been  a  week  in  India  before  he  intimated 
his  intention  of  purifying  the  administration,  and  of  finally 
putting  an  efiectual  stop  to  the  illegitimate  private  trade 
which  had  been  the  source  of  most  of  the  abuses.  At  the 
first  meeting  of  the  Council  he  announced  his  decision. 

One  of  its  members,  who  had  notoriously  been  to  the  fore 
in  acts  of  rapacity,  made  a  show  of  opposition.  CUve 
interrupted  him,  and  haughtily  demanded  to  know  whether 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  87 

he  disputed  the  authority  of  the  new  government.  The 
objector  was  cowed  by  the  question,  and  denied  an}^  wish 
to  obstruct.  The  other  members  uttered  not  a  syllable  of 
distent. 

7heir  opposition  was  none  the  less  real,  and  CHve  knew 
it.  He  was  not  bhnd  to  the  difficulties  and  temptations 
wiih  which  he  would  have  to  contend.  Had  he  been 
mercenary,  had  he  been  false  to  the  trust  imposed  in  him 
by  the  directors,  he  might  have  done  anything  he  wished 
for  his  personal  aggrandisement.  His  wealth  was  already 
great ;  he  might  have  now  made  himself  by  far  the  richest 
man  in  the  world.  He  might  have  connived  at  the  private 
trade  and  the  other  abuses  he  was  sent  out  to  uproot ;  by 
sharing  the  spoils  with  his  old  colleagues,  he  would  have 
made  himself  popular  among  them,  and  he  could  have 
satisfied  the  directors  at  home  with  pretended  reforms  that 
had  no  existence  beyond  the  paper  on  which  they  were 
written. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  policy  which  he  had  sketched  out 
as  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  both  India  and  the  East  India 
Company  was  certain  to  procure  him  the  undying  hatred  of 
the  Enghsh  officials  in  the  Orient.  It  was  by  no  means  so 
certain  that  it  would  win  the  approval  of  the  directors  and 
proprietors.  To  enforce  it  would  mean  hard  work  in  the 
teeth  of  the  interested  opposition  of  a  gang  of  fortune- 
hunters,  and  that  without  any  pecuniary  profit  for  himself. 
Many  another  man  would  have  grasped  at  the  dishonest 
opportunity  :  CHve  did  not. 

The  destinies  of  the  Enghsh  in  India  had  once  before 
depended  on  his  courage ;  they  now  depended  on  his 
honesty  and  sense  of  pubhc  duty  as  well.  He  was  not 
avaricious.  Indeed,  he  was  able  to  declare  later  that  he 
left  India  a  poorer  man  after  his  third  visit  than  after  his 
second ;  and  CUve  was  never  afraid  of  opposition  or  un- 
popularity.     He  carried  out  the  civil  measures  of  reform 


88     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

that  lie  had  planned  with  the  same  iron  will  that  he  had 
shown  as  a  military  commander. 

The  receiving  of  presents  from  the  natives  was  straiglt-  / 
way  prohibited.  No  more  of  such  forced  benevolenees 
In  tne  Civil  disgraced  the  British  name  in  India.  Privitei 
Service.  trade  was  forbidden  without  any  quaUfication.) 
The  whole  English  settlement  rose  in  rebellion  at  these  acs. 
Instead  of  quickly  amassing  riches  and  returning  to  Eurq)e 
within  a  year  or  two,  the  greedy  adventurers  of  Calcurta 
saw  themselves  condemned  to  half  a  hfetime  of  dreary  routine 
work  for  little  pay,  and  the  prospect  of  an  eventual  landing 
at  home  almost  as  poor  as  when  they  embarked. 

But  Olive  was  undaunted.  He  declared  that  if  he  were 
unable  to  find  support  in  Bengal  he  would  find  it  elsewhere. 
His  chief  opponents  were  dismissed,  and  other  less  factious 
assistants  were  obtained  from  Madras.  By  these  stern 
measures  resistance  was  quelled. 

But  it  was  evident  that  unless  the  salari'es  of  the  Company's 
servants  were  increased  to  a  reasonable  amount  the  old 
abuses  would  spring  up  again  ;  or  if  that  were  avoided  it 
would  only  be  because  an  incompetent  class  of  men  who 
could  get  no  better  employment  at  home  had  accepted  posts 
in  the  service.  Either  alternative  was  bad ;  but  the 
directors  were  obstinate,  and  would  not  increase  the  salaries. 
Olive,  therefore,  took  matters  into  his  own  hands. 

A  revised  scale  of  remuneration  was  drawn  up,  which 
provided  an  adequate  salary  to  each  grade  of  the  service  ; 
and  the  monopoly  of  salt  was  appropriated  to  its  payment. 
James  Mill,  an  historian  whose  invincible  prejudice  saw  some- 
thing to  condemn  in  every  deed  of  the  British  in  India,  was  of 
opinion  that  the  act  was  a  tyrannous  usurpation  of  authority 
on  the  part  of  Olive  ;  and  he  beheved  that  it  would  have  no 
effect  in  restraining  the  abuses  of  private  trade,  for  what  had 
been  in  the  power  of  the  grasping  before  the  arrival  of  the 
soldier-statesman  would  again  be  in  their  power  after  his 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  89 

departure.  To  the  former  objection,  it  is  sufficient  to  answer 
that  the  salt  monopoly  had  been  a  source  of  Indian  revenue 
many  generations  before  the  eighteenth  century  ;  its  appro- 
priation for  the  government  service  imposed  no  new  hard- 
ship on  the  natives.  On  the  contrary,  it  alleviated  their 
burdens  :  for,  in  spite  of  the  theoretic  historian,  the  rapacity 
of  the  East  India  Company's  clerks  was  immediately  checked. 
In  the  success  of  the  measure  lies  its  justification. 

The  abuses  of  the  civil  administration  were  thus  done  away 
with  :  those  of  the  military  still  remained.     In  a  double  sense 
their  opposition  was  even  more  formidable  than    j^-j^g 
that  of   the  civilians.     Theirs  was  the  supreme    Military 
power  in  the  country.     They  were  old  comrades    ^®'^^''®- 
in  arms  of  Clive.     They  had  been  affected  disadvantageously 
by  the  retrenchments  ordered  by  the  directors.    And  they 
now  rebelled  under  the   stern   reforming  hand  of  the   old 
master  whom  they  had  loved  and  obeyed  so  well. 

Two  hundred  British  officers  conspired  against  the  govern- 
ment, and  determined  to  resign  their  commissions  on  the 
same  day.  They  acted  in  the  belief  that  Clive  would  quail 
before  an  act  which  jeopardised  the  very  existence  of  the 
British  Empire  in  Asia.  But  they  little  knew  with  whom 
they  had  to  deal.  There  were  a  few  officers  left  on  whom 
Clive  could  rely ;  he  ordered  up  others  from  Madras ;  he 
gave  commissions  to  mercantile  agents,  to  anybody,  in  fact, 
who  would  support  him  at  such  a  crisis  ;  and  the  sepoys 
remained  true  to  one  who  in  past  years  had  often  led  them 
to  victory. 

The  mutineers  were  ordered  to  Calcutta  :  and  they  soon 
discovered  that  they  had  mistaken  their  man.  They  implored 
to  be  taken  back  into  the  service.  But  CHve  was  inexorable. 
The  ringleaders  were  cashiered ;  some  of  the  juniors  were 
leniently  treated  ;  but  he  was  inflexible  in  his  determination 
to  dismiss  the  chiefs  who  had  deserted  him. 

While  thus  severe,  however,  Chve  was  not  revengeful.     It 


90     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

was  suggested  that  one  of  the  conspirators  had  planned  his 
assassination  ;  but  he  would  not  listen  to  the  charge.  '  The 
officers/  he  said,  '  are  Enghshmen,  not  assassins/  From 
that  time  the  mihtary  were  obedient. 

But  these  changes,  great  as  they  were,  still  left  the 
relations  between  the  East  India  Company  and  the  en- 
in  the  Native  f eebled  and  declining  native  governments  of 
Government.  India  untouched.  Yet  CHve  knew  that  after 
his  return  some  ambitious  or  avaricious  official  could  again 
pull  down  the  existing  Nawab,  and  set  up  his  own  nominee 
whenever  he  wished.  The  well-known  series  of  events  would 
begin  once  more  :  the  prince  who  was  deposed  would  con- 
spire against  the  EngHsh,  and  he  who  was  elevated  to  the 
throne  would  prove  a  traitor  or  a  weakling,  or  both  ;  a 
massacre  would  take  place,  as  it  had  at  Patna  in  1763  ;  a 
mutiny  would  break  out,  as  in  1764 ;  and  the  old  vicious 
circle  of  continuous  repression  would  recommence. 

It  was  therefore  necessary  to  alter  the  whole  position 
which  the  East  India  Company  held  as  masters  of  India. 
But  first  it  was  necessary  to  decide  what  their  future  pohcy 
was  to  be.  Were  they  to  extend  their  conquests  indefinitely 
through  the  peninsula,  or  to  be  content  merely  to  conserve 
what  they  had  won  ? 

An  ambitious  dreamer  of  the  magnificent  type  of  Dupleix 
would  have  taken  the  former  course  without  hesitation. 
Had  Clive  been  cast  in  the  same  mould  he  would  have  done 
so  ;  had  he  been  only  a  lover  of  military  glory,  he  would 
probably  have  embarked  on  a  vast  series  of  conquests.  But 
he  was  a  statesman  as  well  as  a  soldier,  an  employee  of  a 
commercial  corporation  as  weU  as  a  ruler  of  kingdoms  ;  and 
the  day  of  the  EngHsh  dreamer  in  India  was  not  yet. 

He  determined  to  cry  a  halt  in  the  movement  towards 
expansion.  On  30th  September  1765  he  wrote  :  '  My  resolu- 
tion was,  and  my  hopes  will  always  be,  to  confine  our  assist- 
ance, our  conquest,  and  our  possessions,  to  Bengal,  Bahar, 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  91 

and  Orissa  :  to  go  further  is,  in  my  opinion,  a  scheme  so 
extravagantly  ambitious  and  absurd,  that  no  Governor  and 
Coimcil  in  their  senses  can  ever  adopt  it,  unless  the  whole 
scheme  of  the  Company's  interest  be  first  entirely  new 
modelled.'  That  he  had  the  support  of  the  directors  in 
making  this  decision  the  whole  tenor  of  their  despatches 
shows.  They  had  always  protested  against  being  made 
oriental  sovereigns  against  their  will.  They  detested  the 
responsibilities  that  had  been  thrust  upon  them,  possibly 
with  an  uneasy  foreconsciousness  that  it  would  eventually 
bring  about  the  interference  of  the  British  Parliament. 
For  a  century  and  a  half  they  had  been  a  trading  company, 
and  they  stiU  saw  no  reason  why  they  should  now  change 
their  course. ^  They  continued,  in  fact,  to  condemn  the 
policy  of  expansion  for  years  after  Clive  left  India.  In  a 
letter  of  1768  they  wrote  :  '  It  is  not  for  the  Company  to  take 
the  part  of  umpires  of  Indostan.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the 
imprudent  measures  you  have  taken,  the  country  powers 
would  have  formed  a  balance  of  power  among  themselves. 
We  wish  to  see  the  Indian  princes  remain  as  a  check  upon 
one  another,  without  our  interfering.'  In  the  following  year 
another  reprimand  was  sent  out :  '  It  is  with  the  utmost 
anxiety  and  displeasure  that  we  see  the  tenth  article  of  the 
treaty  ...  a  measure  so  totally  repugnant  to  our  most 
positive  and  repeated  orders  not  to  extend  our  possessions 
beyond  the  Carnatic.  .  .  .  The  rage  for  negotiations, 
treaties,  and  alliances,  has  private  advantage  for  its  object 
more  than  the  public  good.' 

Clive,  therefore,  in  calling  a  halt,  was  aware  that  he  would 
win    the    approval    of   his    employers :     but    this    certainly 

^  It  may  be  noticed  that  they  succeeded  in  remaining  a  trading  com- 
pany in  China,  without  any  territorial  responsibility.  But  had  the 
Chinese  Empire  shown  the.same  signs  of  disruption  as  the  Indian,  they 
would  probably  have  been  forced  to  follow  the  same  course  there  as  in 
India.  Circumstances  favoured  a  continuance  of  the  more  limited  policy 
in  China,  and  opposed  it  in  India  ;  unfortunately  for  the  directors,  how- 
ever, India  was  more  important  commercially  than  China,. 


92     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

weighed  less  with  him  than  the  good  of  the  British  name  in 
India.  The  directors  natm-ally  approved  his  decision  to 
stop  territorial  expansion  ;  but  they  wished  to  go  further, 
and  give  up  something  even  of  what  they  had  acquired. 
On  this  point  Clive  was  adamant.  He  wrote  at  once,  '  With 
regard  to  the  magnitude  of  our  possessions  be  not  staggered. 
Assure  yourself  that  the  Company  must  either  be  what  they 
are  or  be  annihilated.' 

The  measures  he  took  may  be  briefly  stated.  On  his 
arrival,  he  found  the  Nawab  of  Oudh  threatening  the  British 
The  Dual  possessions.  The  mere  name  of  Chve  was  enough 
System.  ^q  make  the  native  prince  sue  for  peace,  and  sub- 
mit to  pay  one  and  a  half  miUions  sterHng  for  the  expenses 
of  the  war.  Allahabad  and  Korah  were  returned  to  their 
original  owner.  In  the  provinces  of  Bengal,  Bahar,  Orissa, 
and  the  Northern  Circars  was  set  up  what  became  known 
as  the  dual  system  :  that  is  to  say,  the  Mughal,  titular  sove- 
reign of  all  India,  was  prevailed  upon  to  issue  a  warrant, 
by  which  the  Enghsh  were  to  collect  the  revenues  of  those 
provinces,  and  to  maintain  the  army.  For  this  privilege  the 
Company  paid  six  hundred  thousand  sterling  to  the  Nawab  at 
Murshidabad,  and  half  that  sum  to  the  Emperor  at  Delhi. 
The  criminal  jurisdiction  still  remained  in  native  hands. 

When  the  miserable  puppet  who  was  installed  as  Nawab 
at  Murshidabad  heard  of  the  sum  he  was  to  receive  his  one 
remark  was,  '  Thank  God  !  Now  I  can  have  as  many  dancing- 
girls  as  I  please !  '  His  exclamation  sufficiently  charac- 
terises the  class  of  men  to  whom  the  government  of  India 
had  previously  fallen.  By  the  new  arrangement,  however, 
the  EngUsh  were  the  real  masters  ;  although  by  the  fiction  of 
the  dual  grant,  they  were  the  servants  both  of  the  Nawab 
and  of  the  Mughal  to  whom  they  paid  a  subsidy. 

Clive  had  thought  of  openly  claiming  the  complete  rule 
for  the  East  India  Company  :  but  he  hesitated,  and  finally 
declined  to  do  so,  on  the  ground  that  it  would  be  more  easy 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  93 

to  conduct  negotiations  with  the  other  European  traders 
in  Asia  through  the  medium  of  a  native  sovereign.  The 
experience  of  a  few  years  proved  him  to  be  mistaken.  The 
dual  system  was  cumbrous  and  unsatisfactory  in  working  : 
it  lasted  only  a  short  time.  By  it  the  English  possessed  the 
substance  of  power  without  the  shadow  ;  the  course  of  events 
speedily  made  it  necessary  for  them  to  possess  both. 

The  next  step  forward,  however,  was  left  to  another  man. 
Clive  had  done  his  work  :  and  after  eighteen  months  in  the 
East,  his  third  and  last  visit  to  India  came  to  an  end  in 
January  1767.  Broken  in  health,  he  returned  to  England, 
there  to  spend  those  last  few  melancholy  years  which  form 
so  pitiful  a  contrast  to  his  brilliant  career  in  India. 


CHAPTER   II 
WARREN  HASTINGS  :  1767-85  ' 

The  jBirst  years  after  Clive  had  taken  his  final  departure  from 
India  were  quiet  and  uneventful.  The  abuses  he  had  put 
down  did  not  revive  to  any  extent.  The  new  system  of 
government  introduced  by  him  was  on  its  trial. 

Now,  if  at  any  time,  the  business  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany should  have  been  profitable  ;  the  directors  should  have 
been  wealthy,  the  shareholders  contented,  and  the  staff  well 

'  Authorities.  — Gleig's  Life  for  the  personal  history  of  Warren  Hastings, 
with  his  own  numerous  writings.  Hunter  for  his  administration,  supple- 
mented by  the  masterly  State  papers  penned  by  Hastings  himself  during 
his  period  of  office.  Mill  is  extremely  prejudiced  against  Hastings  ; 
Macaulay's  brilliant  essay  must  be  corrected  by  G.  W.  Forrest,  Selec- 
tions Jroni  the  State  Papers  of  the  Governors-General  of  India,  which  ha,ve 
only  recently  been  published.  Macaulay's  estimate  of  Impey  must  be 
rejected  after  the  defence  of  that  judge  in  the  Memoirs,  by  his  son  ;  the 
important  Story  of  Nuncumar,  by  Sir  James  Stephen  ;  and  Mr.  Forrest's 
examination  of  his  Indian  career.  The  parliamentary  debates  and 
pamphlets  published  at  this  time  in  England,  which  are  referred  to  at 
greater  length  in  the  next  chapter,  throw  useful  sidelights  on  the  period. 
The  pamphlets  are  often  extremely  acrimonious  and  contradictory  ;  see, 
for  example,  The  Origin  and  Authentic  Narrative  of  the  Present  Marratta 


94  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

paid  and  prosperous.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Company  had 
seldom  been  in  greater  financial  difiiculties  ;  and  the  troubles 
of  the  Board  of  Control  were  added  to  by  the  constant  dis- 
sensions within,  and  the  continual  discussions  which  took 
place  in  public  as  to  their  methods  of  government,  their  policy 
of  management,  their  treatment  of  the  stafi,  and  their  conduct 
towards  their  Asiatic  subjects. 

England,  in  fact,  was  slowly  beginning  to  realise  that  she 
had  undesignedly  conquered  an  empire  ;  and  her  equanimity 
was  disturbed  by  the  knowledge  that  it  was  an  anomaly  that 
a  trading  corporation  of  London  should  be  a  sovereign  power 
in  Asia.  For  the  moment,  however,  the  national  conscience 
was  not  seriously  incommoded  by  the  discovery. 

But  three  years  after  Clive  left  India,  an  event  took  place 
which  neither  the  statesmanship  nor  the  business  instinct 
THe  Famine  of  the  East  India  Company  could  have  foreseen 
of  1770.  Qj.  provided  against.  For  the  first  time  since  they 
had  emerged  from  the  humble  position  of  mercantile  ad- 
venturers, one  of  those  terrible  famines  which  are  the  scourge 
of  Asia  confronted  them  ;  and  the  Bengal  famine  of  1770  was 
peculiarly  memorable  for  its  severity. 

Famines  had  indeed  constantly  visited  India.  There  is 
proof  of  their  existence  from  the  earliest  times  of  which  we 
have  record.  Every  few  years  one  part  or  another  of  the 
country  had  been  devastated ;  but  their  very  number  pre- 
vented all  but  the  most  awful  from  being  held  in  more  than 

War,  and  also  the  late  Rohilla  War,  published  in  1781,  obviously  in  the 
interest  of  Sir  Philip  Francis,  and  taking  throughout  the  most  unfavour- 
able view  of  Hastings.  There  are  others,  by  the  Governor-General's 
indiscreet  friends,  as  partial  to  him  as  this  is  hostile.  The  political 
history  of  the  events  leading  up  to  the  first  Maratha  War  is  somewhat 
obscure,  and  the  narrative  rests  on  rather  crumbling  ground,  in  sharp 
distinction  to  the  military  history  of  that  war  and  the  war  with  Mysore, 
as  also  of  the  annals  of  Bengal  and  Madras,  where  no  room  for  doubt  can 
arise.  The  reaction  upon  Indian  policy  of  the  critical  situation  of 
European  politics  must  be  borne  in  mind  throughout  the  whole  period 
when  Hastings  was  Governor-General.  Some  interesting  details  of 
Madras  at  this  time  will  be  found  in  Miss  Robbins'  work,  Our  First 
Ambassador  to  China. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  95 

local  remembrance.  Of  the  one  that  took  place  in  1630  a  con- 
temporary historian  wrote  :  *  Life  was  offered  for  a  loaf,  but 
none  would  buy ;  rank  was  to  be  sold  for  a  cake,  but  none 
cared  for  it ;  the  ever  bounteous  hand  was  now  stretched  out 
for  food.  For  long  dog's  flesh  was  sold  for  goat's  flesh,  and 
the  pounded  bones  of  the  dead  were  mixed  with  flour  and 
sold  ;  men  began  to  devour  each  other,  and  the  flesh  of  a  son 
was  preferred  to  his  love.'  The  same  scenes  of  horror  pro- 
bably occurred  at  each  visitation  ;  but  so  far  as  can  be  known, 
the  famine  of  1770  surpassed  them  all. 

The  story  is  appalhngly  simple.  The  head  of  each  family 
cultivated  his  own  plot  of  ground  :  and  when  the  rains  failed 
for  a  season,  the  rivers  shrank  to  rivulets,  the  crops  did  not 
appear,  and  the  whole  population  of  the  Ganges  valley  was 
soon  starving.  Men  died  helplessly  by  the  roadside  ;  women 
who  had  never  before  shown  their  faces  in  public  came  forth 
into  the  streets,  and  threw  themselves  on  the  earth,  with 
loud  lamentations  imploring  in  vain  a  morsel  of  rice  for  their 
little  ones.  The  survivors  were  too  weak  to  attend  to  the 
dying  or  administer  the  last  rites  to  the  dead ;  loathsome 
birds  of  prey  fed  openly  on  the  corpses  that  strewed  the  cities 
and  fields  of  the  unhappy  province  of  Bengal ;  thousands  of 
those  who  perished  were  borne  down  by  the  Hugli  past  the 
English  settlement  of  Calcutta. 

It  is  said  that  ten  millions  died  in  a  few  months  :  the  popular 
computation  reckoned  that  six  annas  in  the  rupee,  or  six- 
sixteenths  of  the  whole  population  of  Bengal,  perished  in  the 
famine. 

It  was  rumoured  that  the  servants  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany snatched  a  wretched  and  inhuman  profit  by  buying  all 
the  available  rice  and  grain  of  the  country,  and  selling  it  at 
many  times  its  normal  price  to  their  starving  subjects.  The 
allegation  seems  to  have  been  unfounded  ;  for  the  honour 
of  the  English  name,  we  may  hope  that  it  was  ;  but  it  shows 
the  opinion  held  at  home  of  the  morality  of  the  East  India 


96     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

Company's  employees.  Public  feeling  in  England  was  now 
thoroughly  aroused,  and  sympathy  with  India  was  mingled 
with  horror  at  the  acts  of  its  masters,  for  which  England  was 
indirectly  answerable  ;  and  before  the  just  indignation  of 
the  country  could  die  away  under  some  more  exciting  party 
political  scare  at  Westminster,  the  first  great  parliamentary 
measure  of  Indian  administrative  reform  was  accomplished. 

The  cost  of  government,  and  the  decreasing  profits  on  its 

trade,  had  brought  the  Company  into  serious  financial  straits. 

India  and      ^^^  ^^^  ^^  Parliament  passed  in  1769,  permitting 

the  British     a  renewal  of  the  charter,  contained  more  onerous 

ar  lamen  .    pj.QyigJQjjg  ^j^^j^  j^^^j  previously  been  required  of 

the  stockholders.  Their  property  in  India  was  granted 
for  five  years  more,  on  condition  that  they  paid  into 
the  English  exchequer  annually  four  hundred  thousand 
sterling.  By  a  shding  scale,  their  dividend  might  rise  from 
ten  to  twelve  and  a  half  per  cent.  ;  if  it  fell  below  that  sum 
their  contribution  to  the  exchequer  was  reduced  ;  if  it  should 
be  less  than  six  per  cent,  no  claim  at  all  was  to  be  made  on 
them.  But  this  did  not  improve  their  affairs  :  and  three 
years  later  came  the  crisis.  It  was  necessary  to  borrow  from 
the  Bank  of  England  to  save  the  Company  from  bankruptcy  ; 
and  the  Bank  was  unwilling  to  lend  all  that  was  required. 
Application  was  made  to  the  British  Government,  and  the 
British  Government  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  directors. 

It  was  now  August  1772  ;  and  already  in  January  of  that 
year  the  King's  Speech  at  the  opening  of  Parliament  had 
The  Reeu-  nientioned  the  affairs  of  India  as  a  possible 
lating  Act,  subject  of  legislation.  On  30th  March  a  Bill 
had  been  brought  in  for  the  better  regulation  of 
the  Indian  service,  and  for  improving  the  administration  of 
justice  in  the  East.  Referred  to  a  Select  Committee,  it 
was  thrown  out  on  second  reading ;  but  Parliament  again 
met  in  November,  much  earlier  than  usual,  in  order  to 
consider  the  position  of  the  East  India  Company. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  97 

The  directors  complained  in  vain  of  the  interference ;  it 
was  proposed  to  lend  them  money  to  carry  on  the 
business  of  the  Company,  and  to  allow  them  the  profits 
and  ownership  of  their  territorial  possessions  for  the  ensuing 
six  years  that  were  unexpired  of  the  term  of  their  charter. 
Loud  protests  were  heard  that  this  was  confiscation  of  pro- 
perty :  but,  on  3rd  May  1773,  the  Government  introduced  an 
almost  revolutionary  measure.  Some  small  alterations  were 
to  be  made  in  the  constitution  of  the  Company  at  home,  but 
the  main  changes  afEected  India.  . . 

•~  A  Governor-General  was  to  be  appointed  at  a  salary  of  < 
£25,000  yearly,  assisted  by  four  Councillors  with  £8000  each. 
This  was  to  apply  to  Bengal ;  and  the  other  presidencies  were 
to  be  subordinate  to  it.  A  Supreme  Court  of  Judicature 
was  to  be  estabhshed  at  Calcutta,  with  a  Chief-Justice  at  a 
salary  of  £8000  and  three  judges  at  £6000.  These  were  to 
be  appointed  by  the  British  Government ;  the  first  Governor- 
General  and  Councillors  were  to  be  nominated  by  Parliament 
for  the  first  five  years ;  after  that  the  patronage  returned 
to  the  directors,  but  always  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
Government ;  while  everything  in  the  Company's  corre- 
spondence relating  to  civil  or  military  affairs,  the  government 
of  the  country,  or  the  administration  of  revenue,  was  to  be 
laid  before  the  British  Cabinet  for  approval.  No  person  in 
the  service  either  of  the  king  or  the  Company  was  to  be 
allowed  to  receive  presents,  and  the  Governor-General,  the 
Councillors,  and  the  judges  were  to  be  excluded  from  all 
commercial  profits  and  pursuits. 

The  Company  again  protested  bitterly  at  the  subversion 
of  its  chartered  rights,  and  appeal  was  made  to  the  City 
of  London,  the  stronghold  of  commercial  corporations,  for 
aid  in  the  struggle  against  a  measure  that  was  stigmatised 
as  legal  robbery.  It  was  said  that  no  property  was  safe 
when  ParHament  could  thus  despoil  its  owners  ;  that  it 
was  manifestly  unjust  that  the  Company  should  be  deprived 

VOL.  II.  G 


98     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEKSEAS 

of  the  choice  of  its  servants,  while  it  was  compelled  to  pay 
those  appointed  by  others,  and  pay  them,  too,  enormous 
salaries  out  of  profits  none  too  large.  It  was  hinted  darkly 
that  what  had  happened  to  the  East  India  Company  might 
be  the  fate  of  other  City  corporations,  and  that  it  behoved 
all  to  stand  together  in  defence  of  the  first  victim. 

But  the  City  took  no  action,  although  it  must  be  admitted 
that  a  plausible  case  was  made  out.  The  weak  point  in 
the  directors'  argument  was  their  ignoring  the  fact  that  it 
was  abnormal  for  a  commercial  company  to  rule  an  empire. 
No  other  company  was  likely  to  find  itself  in  such  a  position, 
and  London  could  not  be  very  seriously  alarmed  at  a  law 
that  was  evidently  not  really  intended  to  confiscate  property 
at  all,  but  was  only  introduced  in  obedience  to  the  higher 
principle  that  England  as  a  whole  was  responsible  for  the 
acts  of  her  people  throughout  the  world.  The  directors  also 
conveniently  forgot  that  it  was  they  who  had  first  appealed 
to  the  British  Government  for  aid  ;  and  that  the  administra- 
tion of  their  Asiatic  possessions  had  for  years  been  a  byword 
and  a  reproach. 

If  a  commercial  crisis  and  a  political  scandal  together 
do  not  justify  the  interference  of  Parhament,  then  nothing 
does.     The  Bill  was  passed. 

The  first  Governor-General  of  British  India  was  Warren 
Hastings,  a  scholar  and  administrator,  the  strange  romance 
Warren  ^^  whose  career  is  in  itself  an  epitome  of  Anglo- 
Hastings,       Indian   history   for   many  years.      Born   of   the 

1  (TOO     T  O^  O 

old  and  honourable  but  decayed  family  of  the 
Hastings  of  Daylesford,  on  6th  December  1732,  it  seemed 
likely  in  early  life  that  the  natural  bent  of  his  talents  would 
make  him  a  man  of  letters,  perhaps  a  university  professor. 
A  good  athlete  at  Westminster  School,  he  took  even  more 
kindly  to  his  book  than  to  sport. 

But  the  guardian  in  whose  care  the  orphan  had  been 
placed  had  planned  a  different  career  for  his  charge.     It  was 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  99 

in  his  power  to  obtain  for  Hastings  a  writersliip  in  the  East 
India  Company's  service  ;  and,  despite  the  remonstrances 
of  the  latter's  tutor,  who  offered  to  pay  the  expenses  of  his 
most  promising  pupil  at  the  university,  young  Hastings  was 
shipped  off  to  the  East  in  his  eighteenth  year. 

It  seemed  that  in  all  probabiHty  a  life  at  the  desk  awaited 
him,  a  life  whose  main  incidents  were  the  making  out  of 
accounts,  the  posting  of  ledgers,  and  the  correct  filhng-up 
of  bills  of  lading.  Nothing  more  engrossing  occupied  the 
average  Anglo-Indian  at  that  time,  unless  he  engaged  in  the 
illicit  private  trade  that  alone  could  make  him  independent. 
To  these  unexciting  pursuits  was  Hastings  doomed ;  but 
his  was  a  different  spirit  from  that  of  the  majority  of  his 
fellow  clerks. 

The  taste  for  learning  softened  the  fetters  of  commerce  ; 
the  love  of  letters  survived  the  cares  of  statesmanship  and 
the  long  wrangles  at  the  Council  Board.  He  was  the  first 
Englishman  in  the  East  who  took  any  interest  in  the 
magnificent  literature  of  India  ;  the  first  who  troubled  to 
gain  anything  beyond  a  perfunctory  knowledge  of  the 
languages  of  the  country.  Clive  had  conducted  all  his 
affairs  through  an  interpreter.  The  merchants  of  the 
Company  were  satisfied  if  they  could  speak  enough  of  the 
vernacular  to  buy  and  sell  advantageously.  Hastings,  on 
the  other  hand,  studied  the  tongue  of  the  people  among 
whom  he  dwelt,  and  explored  part,  at  least,  of  the  sealed 
book  of  Eastern  thought.  It  was  through  his  personal 
exertions  in  later  years  that  a  few  cultured  Enghshmen 
began  to  reahse  that  there  were  Asiatic  as  well  as  Em'opean 
classics,  and  that  a  knowledge  of  the  Sanscrit  idiom  might 
be  as  useful  as  that  of  ancient  Greece. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  a  man  whose  tastes  led  him 
to  the  then  unprecedented  course  of  learning  what  were 
still  considered  barbarous  languages,  would  be  an  adminis- 
trator of  fundamentally  different  type  from  the  ordinary 


100  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

official :  and  whatever  mistakes  Hastings  committed  in  the 
course  of  his  career,  however  harsh  and  unjust  he  may  have 
been  at  times  to  the  land  he  ruled,  there  was  always  a  world 
of  difierence  between  his  pohcy  and  that  of  his  predecessors. 

His  absorption  in  a  dramatic  series  of  political  and  diplo- 
matic events  has  averted  attention  from  his  reforms  in  Bengal 
and  the  other  provinces  under  British  rule ;  the  indignation 
of  England  at  the  autocratic  excesses  which  stain  his  name 
is  remembered,  while  much  of  his  permanent  work  is  for- 
gotten, buried  as  it  is  in  uninteresting  State  papers  and  dry 
legal  documents  ;  yet  the  administrative  side  of  his  career, 
neglected  by  his  enemies  when  they  impeached  him, 
neglected  Hkewise  by  too  many  historians  who  seize  only 
on  the  picturesque  and  striking  episodes  of  Hfe,  embodies, 
in  fact,  by  far  the  most  valuable  part  of  his  work. 

The  first  two  years  of  his  hfe  in  India  were  spent  unevent- 
fully in  the  East  India  Company's  office  at  Calcutta.  Clive 
had  despaired  in  a  similar  situation,  and  attempted  to  commit 
suicide  ;  Hastings  gave  way  to  no  such  outburst  of  passion. 
His  whole  character,  indeed,  was  one  of  quiet  calm  depth 
and  strength.  He  had,  at  least  in  early  years,  the  lack  of 
assertiveness  that  is  natural  to  the  student ;  thus  we  find 
Clive,  who  soon  noticed  his  abihty,  writing  to  him, '  I  thought 
I  discovered  in  you  a  diffidence  in  your  own  judgment,  and 
too  great  an  easiness  of  disposition,  which  may  subject  you 
insensibly  to  be  led  where  you  ought  to  guide.' 
;  Seldom  was  there  a  greater  mistake.  Under  an  unimposing 
appearance,  and  with  an  apparent  docihty  which  may  have  led 
him  at  first  to  acquiesce  in  acts  of  which  he  must  have  seen 
the  unwisdom,  lay  concealed  an  unconquerable  will  and  a  firm- 
ness of  purpose  not  less  inflexible  than  that  of  Robert  Lord 
Chve.  And  his  later  career  was  to  show  that  he  possessed  to 
the  full  the  unscrupulousness  inherent  in  great  men  when  placed 
in  a  position  of  supreme  power,  the  contempt  for  anything 
but  the  shortest  cut  to  the  required  end,  the  necessary  dis- 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  101 

regard  of  the  feelings  and  rights  of  opponents  who  do  not 
matter,  the  requisite  foresight  to  circumvent  in  advance 
those  who  may  become  dangerous. 

Two  incidents  of  his  private  life  show  the  patient  firmness 
with  which  he  pursued  any  object  that  lay  near  his  heart. 
As  a  boy,  he  had  determined  to  win  back  the  family  estates 
at  Daylesford,  which  the  improvidence  of  his  ancestors  had 
lost.  He  has  left  an  account  of  his  childish  thoughts  in  his 
own  graceful  style,  A  stream  ran  beside  his  home  :  and 
'  to  lie  beside  the  margin  of  that  stream,'  he  wrote,  '  and 
muse  was  one  of  my  favourite  recreations  ;  and  there,  one 
bright  summer's  day,  when  I  was  scarcely  seven  years  old, 
I  well  remember  that  I  first  formed  the  determination  to 
purchase  back  Daylesford.  I  was  then  quite  dependent 
upon  those  who  were  themselves  scarcely  raised  above  want ; 
yet  somehow  or  other  the  child's  dream,  as  it  did  not  appear 
unreasonable  at  the  moment,  so  in  after  years  it  never  faded 
away.  God  knows  there  were  times  in  my  career,  when  to 
accomplish  that  or  any  other  object  of  honourable  ambition, 
seemed  to  be  impossible  :  but  I  have  lived  to  accomplish 
this.'  At  his  desk  in  India  he  still  held  to  the  idea,  and  it 
animated  him  throughout  his  whole  career  until  he  was 
successful. 

Again,  on  his  second  journey  out  to  India,  he  fell  in  love. 
The  lady  was  already  married  to  an  ignoble  German  baron, 
who  consented  to  a  divorce  ;  and  Hastings  waited  patiently 
during  the  years  that  elapsed  before  the  tardy  law  courts  of 
Franconia  pronounced  the  decree  that  freed  her. 

jLs  a  jmiior  clerk  Hastings  was  unassuming ;  as  Governor- 
General  of  British  India  he  indulged  in  no  pomp  or  ceremony. 
A  description  of  him  by  a  French  observer  marvels  at  his 
lack  of  ostentation.  He  wore  a  plain  suit  of  English  broad- 
cloth, without  any  of  the  customary  ornament  of  lace  and 
embroidery.  His  whole  retinue  was  a  dozen  horseguards. 
His  throne  was  a  plain  mahogany  chair ;    and  there  were 


102  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

plenty  of  similar  thrones,  said  tte  amused  Frenchman,  in 
the  hall.  His  table  was  sometimes  neglected,  his  diet  was 
sparing  and  always  abstemious.  His  manners  were  far 
distant  from  pride,  but  still  more  distant  from  familiarity. 

Such  was  the  man  who,  having  made  his  way  by  gradual 
steps  from  clerk  to  Councillor,  became  in  1772  Governor  of 
Bengal,  and  three  years  later  the  first  Governor-General  of 
British  India.  It  was  not  long  before  he  inaugurated  a  new 
policy  of  reform,  and  swept  away  that  dual  system  which 
Olive  had  introduced,  and  which  it  was  now  found  impossible 
to  continue  with  any  advantage. 

All  land  in  India  had  from  time  immemorial  belonged  to 
the  State :  the  ryot,  or  cultivator,  paying  for  its  use  part 
Revenue  o^  the  proceeds  of  his  labour  to  the  head  of  the 
Reform.  State.  The  collector  of  this  revenue  was  the 
zamindar  :  and  it  was  his  duty  to  receive  the  total  revenue 
of  his  district,  and  to  pay  it  over  to  the  central  office  of 
revenue,  deducting  ten  per  cent,  of  the  whole  for  his  com- 
mission or  salary.  An  elaborate  system  of  assessment  had 
been  worked  out :  and  even  in  the  days  when  the  Mughal 
Empire  was  falling  to  pieces,  the  system  was  adhered  to.  It 
must  have  been  open  to  abuses  at  all  times  :  the  ryot  was 
often  mulcted  of  more  than  his  due,  and  in  practice  he  was 
powerless  to  resist.  But  during  the  days  of  anarchy  that  pre- 
ceded the  conquest  by  the  British,  the  extortions  of  the 
zamindari  had  become  almost  unbearable.  If  they  allowed 
the  ryot  to  retain  as  much  of  the  proceeds  of  his  labour 
as  was  necessary  for  a  bare  existence,  and  for  the  sowing  of 
his  next  year's  crop,  it  was  only  because  self-interest  warned 
the  zamindar  that  he  should  not  utterly  exterminate  the 
person  from  whom  he  derived  his  wealth. 

Nor  did  the  system  improve  during  the  first  years  of  the 
British  administration.  Besides  the  zamindar,  the  greedy 
officials  of  the  East  India  Company  had  also  to  obtain  their 
pickings  ;    and  an  additional  burden  thus  fell  on  the  ryot. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  103 

The  reforms  of  Clive  made  little  difference  :  for  if  the  servants 
of  the  Company  were  restrained,  the  proceeds  now  went 
into  the  treasury  of  the  Company  itself.  Even  during  the 
terrible  Bengal  famine  the  revenue  was  pitilessly  collected 
with  the  utmost  rigour ;  and  the  whole  country  still  con- 
tinued to  groan  under  the  double  tyranny,  a  tyranny  which 
it  was  impossible  to  shake  off,  and  useless  to  question. 

It  was  this  iniquitous  state  of  things  which  Warren  Hastings 
set  himself  to  abolish.  In  a  report  on  the  working  of  the 
dual  system  he  wrote,  that,  '  The  Nazims  exacted  what  they 
could  from  the  zamindars  and  great  farmers  of  the  revenue, 
whom  they  left  at  liberty  to  plunder  all  below  ;  reserving  to 
themselves  the  prerogative  of  plundering  them  in  turn,  when 
they  were  supposed  to  enrich  themselves  with  the  spoil  of 
the  country.'  There  was  indeed  habitual  extortion  and  in- 
justice, which  had  its  natural  effect  on  the  ryots.  When 
there  is  tyranny  above  there  will  be  concealment  and  evasion 
below  ;  and  the  ryots,  sure  that  they  would  be  made  to  pay 
more  than  the  just  amount,  endeavoured  by  subterfuge  to 
pay  less. 

The  adverse  report  of  Hastings  had  immediate  effect.  The 
directors  decided  to  '  take  upon  themselves  by  the  agency 
of  their  own  servants  the  entire  care  and  administration 
of  the  revenue ' ;  and,  accordingly,  the  exchequer  was  re- 
moved to  Calcutta,  and  European  collectors  were  appointed 
to  superintend  the  revenue  and  preside  in  the  courts. 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  the  reform ;  and  from  that 
time  Hastings  embarked  on  a  long  series  of  administrative 
experiments.  Lands  were  let  out  in  farm  on  long  leases,  but 
provision  was  made  against  the  tyranny  of  the  collectors ; 
a  native  assistant  was  attached  to  every  collector,  to  check 
his  actions  :  and  no  servant  of  a  collector  was  permitted  to 
farm  any  part  of  the  revenue.  An  old  abuse,  the  receiving 
of  forced  '  presents  '  from  the  ryot,  was  stopped. 

A  still  worse  abuse  than  these  remained  :  the  ryot  had  been 


104  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

preyed  upon  till  he  had  been  compelled  to  borrow  money, 
lest  he  should  be  without  the  means  for  buying  the  seed  for 
his  next  year's  crop.  He  could  only  borrow  from  the  zamindar ; 
and  the  latter  imposed  a  rate  of  interest  that  even  a  mediaeval 
Jew  would  have  considered  extortionate.  Precautions  were 
taken  to  stop  this  exaction,  which  changed  a  free  man  into 
a  slave  :  but  the  cancer  was  too  deeply  rooted  in  Indian  life 
to  be  cut  out  at  one  operation.  A  later  report  from  the 
Council  expressed  regret  that  they  had  been  unable  alto- 
gether to  abohsh  the  resort  to  usury  :  nor  can  their  failure  be 
wondered  at,  when  we  remember  that,  despite  the  land  banks 
of  modern  India,  that  wretched  parasite,  the  village  money- 
lender, still  grows  fat  on  the  proceeds  of  other  persons'  industry. 

From  the  land,  Hastings  turned  his  attention  to  the 
legal  system  of  Bengal.  Here  again  all  was  chaos.  In 
Legal  the  original  courts  of  India,  the  discretion  of  the 

Reform.  judge  was  only  bound  by  the  Hindu  scriptures 
and  the  commentaries  upon  them,  by  the  customs  of  the 
country,  and  the  interpretation  put  upon  them  by  the 
Brahmans.  The  decisions  were  therefore  often  arbitrary,  the 
interference  of  superiors  frequent,  and  the  whole  procedure 
illogical.    The  rich  went  free,  the  poor  paid  a  double  penalty. 

But  if  the  abuse  was  great  while  the  power  of  the  Mughal 
Empire  was  yet  untouched,  it  was  ten  times  worse  when  each 
petty  province  possessed  its  own  ruler ;  and  it  was  aggra- 
vated during  the  first  few  years  of  the  English  conquest.  No 
Enghshman  would  submit  himself  to  the  control  of  the  native 
courts  ;  and  since  all  power  was  in  the  hands  of  the  English, 
the  immediate  efiect  was  to  reduce  the  always  inadequate 
laws  to  a  nullity. 

No  government  worthy  of  the  name  could  exist  while  this 
state  of  affairs  continued,  and  Hastings  set  to  work  to  bring 
at  least  some  show  of  order  into  the  Indian  judicial  system. 
His  main  idea  is  summarised  in  a  note  dated  24th  March  1774, 
'  There  can  be  but  one  government  and  one  power  in  this 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  105 

province/  Taking  this  as  a  guiding  principle,  a  whole  series 
of  alterations  was  made.  A  council  of  control  was  set  up, 
which  had  the  right  of  revising  the  decisions  of  the  lower 
courts.  Two  subsidiary  courts,  civil  and  penal,  were  appointed 
in  each  district.  It  was  further  ordained  that  a  record  of  all 
the  proceedings  was  to  be  made  and  preserved  in  every  court. 
Exorbitant  fines  were  prohibited.  The  judges  had  previ- 
ously drawn  their  salaries  in  the  shape  of  commission  on  all 
property  in  htigation  ;  and  this  fruitful  source  of  injustice 
and  bribery  was  now  abolished.  At  the  seat  of  government 
there  were  established  two  supreme  courts  of  appeal,  which 
had  power  to  review  the  decisions  of  all  the  inferior  tribunals. 

But  beneficent  as  these  reforms  were,  they  proved  insuffi- 
cient, and  in  some  ways,  not  altogether  satisfactory.  The 
lower  courts  were  administered  by  natives  :  the  superior 
courts  by  Englishmen.  But  the  natives  did  not  understand 
the  principles  of  English  law ;  the  English  did  not  under- 
stand the  principles  of  native  law.  Again,  perjury  was 
common  in  the  courts  of  law  to  which  Enghsh  barristers 
had  been  accustomed  at  home  ;  but  it  was  not  that  gross  and 
detailed  perjury  which  every  witness  swore  on  oath  in  an 
Indian  court.  Again,  English  ignorance  of  the  manners, 
customs,  ideas,  and  even  the  languages  of  India  was  pro- 
found ;  yet  in  no  walk  of  hfe  is  a  knowledge  of  these  more 
essential  than  in  legal  practice. 

It  took  years  of  further  experiments  before  a  satisfactory 
system  was  devised.  The  successor  of  Hastings  found  it  neces- 
sary to  place  all  the  administration  in  Enghsh  hands.  In  the 
nineteenth  century  a  complete  code  was  drawn  up,  and  it  has 
frequently  been  revised.  Even  now,  after  the  continued 
improvements  of  over  a  hmidred  years,  it  is  admitted  that 
justice  often  goes  astray,  so  great  is  the  difficulty  of  arriving 
at  a  right  decision  when  every  hired  witness  perjures  him- 
self as  few  but  Asiatics  can  ;  and  remembering  these  facts,  we 
shall  find  no  great  cause  for  surprise  that  the  judicial  system 


106     THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

set  up  by  Warren  Hastings  did  not  give  complete  satisfac- 
tion. But  at  least  it  was  an  enormous  improvement  on  the 
legal  anarchy  that  had  existed  before  his  time ;  the  real 
matter  for  wonder  is  that  it  answered  as  well  as  it  did, 

Hastings,  however,  was  no  Sir  Oracle  :  he  was  fully  aware 
of  the  imperfections  in  his  work.  At  most  it  was  done  in 
a  tentative,  experimental  fashion  ;  it  was  always  open  to 
revision  and  improvement.  And  during  the  whole  thirteen 
years  of  his  administration  he  was  forming  and  carrying  out 
fresh  projects  in  the  rural  administration  of  the  comitry. 

How  much  more  he  would  have  done  had  his  hands  been  free 
it  is  impossible  to  conjecture  :  but  his  attention  was  con- 
tinually called  away  from  the  work  of  reform  by  the  general 
affairs  of  his  territories,  the  dissensions  and  enmity  of  his 
Council,  the  insistent  demand  for  money  and  more  money 
from  the  directors  of  the  Company,  and  the  external  pohtics 
of  that  part  of  India  which  was  not  yet  under  British  rule. 

So  many  were  the  demands  upon  his  time,  indeed,  that 
at  the  end  of  his  first  six  months  as  Governor  he  wrote  home, 
in  half-humorous  despair  :  '  Here  I  am  with  arrears  of  months, 
and  some  of  years  to  bring  up  ;  with  the  courts  of  justice  to 
set  a-going ;  with  the  official  reformation  to  resume  and 
complete ;  with  the  current  trifles  of  the  day,  notes,  letters, 
personal  apphcations  ;  every  man's  business  of  more  con- 
sequence than  any  other,  and  complainants  from  every 
quarter  of  the  province  hallooing  me  by  hundreds  for  justice 
as  often  as  I  put  my  head  out  of  window,  or  venture  abroad. ' 

Changes  in  the  administration  such  as  those  outlined  above 
transferred  much  power  from  native  to  Enghsh  hands  :  but 
The  Dual  ^^  ^^^  ^^^  abolition  of  the  dual  system  of  govern- 
System  ment  that  fuially  consohdated  the  dominion  of 

Aboiishe  .  ^j^g  'East  India  Company  in  Bengal.  Here  again 
Hastings  introduced  the  wise  principle,  the  necessity  of  which 
had  now  become  evident,  that  one  government  should  be 
supreme  throughout  the  province.     By  the  terms  of  dive's 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  107 

arrangement,  a  large  part  of  the  revenue  receipts  were  paid 
back  in  bulk  to  the  titular  emperor  at  Delhi,  and  a  yet  larger 
part  to  the  titular  native  prince  at  Murshidabad,  a  wretched 
creature  whose  whole  attention  and  substance  was  given  to 
his  dancing-girls  and  to  sensual  indulgence. 

The  first  important  step,  the  abolition  of  the  dual  govern- 
ment, was  comparatively  easy.  Nearly  the  whole  internal 
administration  of  Bengal  had  been  delegated  by  the  Company 
to  a  Musalman  of  high  rank,  of  great  talents,  and  of  few 
scruples,  one  Muhammed  Reza  Khan.  The  lucrative  and 
splendid  ofl&ce  which  he  filled  was  the  object  of  many  men's 
desire  ;  and  no  man  desired  it  more  than  Nuncumar,  a  Hindu 
of  enormous  wealth  and  commanding  position,  who  had 
played  an  important  part  in  all  the  recent  poHtical  changes 
in  Bengal. 

The  deceitful  and  intriguing  character  of  Nuncumar  was 
well  known  to  every  EngHshman  in  Asia  ;  but,  although  his 
untrustworthiness  was  admittedly  evident  to  the  directors 
of  the  East  India  Company,  the  words  of  the  agents  he 
employed  in  Europe  were  accepted  by  them  without  reserve. 
He  induced  them  to  believe  that  the  dismissal  of  Muhammed 
Reza  IQian  from  his  office  would  be  to  their  advantage  : 
and  accordingly  Hastings  received  orders  privately  from 
London  to  reheve  Muhammed  of  his  functions,  to  arrest 
him,  his  family,  and  his  followers,  and  to  institute  a  strict 
inquiry  into  the  whole  administration  of  Bengal. 

Hastings  obeyed  at  once.  The  house  of  the  doomed 
minister  at  Murshidabad  was  surrounded  at  midnight  by 
sepoys ;  he  was  awakened,  and,  with  his  suite,  at  once 
brought  down  to  Calcutta.  Hastings'  fellow-members  of 
the  Council,  who  had  only  been  in  India  a  few  days  when 
the  arrest  was  made,  were  not  informed  until  the  deed  was 
done  ;  it  is  not  probable  that  their  objections  would  have 
weighed  mth  him  in  any  case.  The  trial  of  Muhammed  was 
delayed  on  specious  pretexts  for  many  months,  during  which 


108  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEESEAS 

time  the  dual  system  of  government  was  abolished,  the 
internal  administration  of  Bengal  was  transferred  to  English 
servants  of  the  Company,  and  the  ofl&ce  of  minister,  which 
Muhammed  had  held,  and  Nuncumar  had  coveted,  was 
abolished  altogether. 

The  revolution  being  thus  quickly  completed,  Hastings 
proceeded  to  investigate  the  charges  against  Muhammed 
Reza  Khan.  A  lengthy  inquiry  into  his  conduct  took 
place  :  he  was  finally  pronounced  innocent,  and  set  at  liberty. 
Soon  afterwards,  the  allowance  made  by  agreement  to  the 
Nawab  of  Bengal  was  reduced  at  a  stroke  from  £320,000  a 
year  to  half  that  sum.  By  a  similar  agreement,  the  Mughal 
had  also  received  a  large  annual  sum  from  the  Company 
in  token  of  his  sovereignty,  and  the  districts  of  Korah  and 
Allahabad  had  likewise  been  ceded  to  him.  Hastings  now 
declared,  what  was  in  fact  correct,  that  the  sovereignty  was 
a  fiction.  It  was,  therefore,  announced  thatj  for  the  future, 
no  more  tribute  would  be  paid,  and  that  the  two  provinces 
would  be  reclaimed. 

But  these  two  provinces  would  have  been  unlikely  to  bring 
in  any  profit  to  the  Company,  and  they  would  have  been 
expensive  to  maintain  withal.  A  convenient  opportunity 
presented  itself :  the  ruler  of  Oudh  was  anxious  to  extend 
his  possessions  ;  a  bargain  was  struck,  and  the  districts  of 
Korah  and  Allahabad  were  disposed  of  to  him  for  some  half 
a  milhon  sterling. 

The  revolution  was  therefore  accomplished,  not  only 
without  a  blow  being  struck,  but  in  a  manner  that  made  it 
immediately  profitable  to  the  East  India  Company.  And  it 
was  well  for  Warren  Hastings  that  it  was  so,  for  the  East 
India  Company  was  now  again  in  financial  straits. 

The  directors  were  sending  urgent  requests  to  the  Governor- 
General  by  every  ship,  requests  that  were  in  reality  commands ; 
and  he  knew  that,  in  their  eyes,  his  success  or  failure  as  a 
Governor  largely  depended  on  the  number  of  thousands  of 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  109 

rupees  he  sent  home.  His  masters  instructed  him,  indeed, 
to  rule  benevolently,  to  be  a  father  to  the  people  committed 
to  his  care  ;  oppression  should  no  longer  sully  their  adminis- 
tration, and  tyranny  was  far  from  their  thoughts  ;  but  at 
the  end  of  every  moral  discourse  came  the  inevitable  demand 
for  money. 

Writing  from  the  Company's  London  office  in  Leadenhall 
Street,  without  any  personal  acquaintance  with  the  East, 
the  directors  were  probably  unaware — for  they  were  passably 
honest  men — of  the  inconsistence  between  their  desire  for 
good  government  and  better  dividends.^  Everybody  in 
England  at  that  day  thought  of  India  as  a  country  roUing  in 
wealth,  and  would  have  laughed  to  scorn  any  one  who  told 
them  the  contrary.  Yet  the  contrary  would  have  been  the 
truth,  in  spite  of  the  fortunes  that  had  been  brought  home 
by  the  Company's  servants.  But  to  the  directors  it  seemed 
an  easy  thing  for  their  representative  on  the  spot  to  send 
over  another  half  million  or  million  sterling  a  year  ;  and 
Hastings  found  it  necessary  to  turn  his  attention  to 
economies  in  every  direction. 

The  methods  that  he  employed  did  not  tend  to  elevate  the 
fame  of  Britain  in  the  East ;  nor  did  they  leave  the  name 
of  Warren  Hastings  unsullied.  We  remember,  it  is  true, 
his  excellent  administration  in  Bengal,  and  the  promptitude 
with  which  he  succoured  Bombay  and  Madras  in  the  hour 
of  disaster  ;  but  we  are  hkewise  compelled  to  remember 
the  Rohilla  War,  and  the  extortionate  tribute  exacted  from 
Chait  Sinh  and  the  Begams  of  Oudh. 

The  Kohillas  were  a  brave  but  fickle  tribe  of  military 
adventurers,  full  of  the  warlike  fire  and  the  predatory  instincts 
of  the  Afghan  races,  who  had  settled  in  the  district  called  after 

^  In  1766  the  East  India  Company  had  unwisely  I'aised  its  dividend 
from  six  to  ten  per  cent.  The  directors  disliked  the  idea,  but  were  over- 
ruled by  the  General  Court  of  Proprietors.  The  Company  was  heavily 
in  debt  at  the  time,  and  it  was  quite  impossible  to  maintain  so  high  a 
figure  in  subsequent  years. 


110  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

them  Rohilkliand.^  When  the  Mughal  Empire  had  been  in 
its  vigour  under  the  strong  rule  of  Aurungzeb,  their  services 
The  Rohiua  ^^^  been  well  rewarded ;  and  they  held  their 
War,  1774.  territories  as  military  fiefs  of  the  supreme  head 
of  India.  In  the  anarchy  that  succeeded  the  death  of  that 
great  monarch,  they  became  practically  independent ;  but 
the  Marathas  had  recently  attacked  them  with  success,  and 
the  Prince  of  Oudh,  whose  country  was  now  also  threatened 
by  the  Marathas,  agreed  to  protect  them  against  the  common 
foe. 

A  treaty  was  made  ;  the  Rohillas  were  protected.  But 
they  refused  to  pay  the  tribute  which  they  had  promised  in 
the  hour  of  danger ;  and  Suja  Dowlah,  the  Prince  of  Oudh, 
determined  to  take  possession  of  their  country. 

Here,  however,  a  difficulty  presented  itself.  The  Prince 
of  Oudh  doubted  the  ability  of  his  own  troops  to  perform  the 
task  ;  and  he  suggested  to  Warren  Hastings  that  the  East 
India  Company  should  lend  him  a  sufficient  force  to  conquer 
the  Rohillas.  The  Governor-General  demurred,  although  he 
admitted  that  there  were  powerful  arguments  in  favour  of 
reducing  the  Rohillas ;  but  after  a  time  he  consented.  For 
forty  lakhs  of  rupees,  for  four  hundred  thousand  pounds 
sterhng,  it  was  agreed  that  a  division  of  the  British  Indian 
army  should  undertake  a  campaign  against  the  Rohillas. 
It  was  further  stipulated,  with  that  careful  precision  which 
distinguished  every  act  of  Warren  Hastings,  that  the  full 
expenses  of  the  campaign  should  be  borne  by  Suja  Dowlah. 

The  work  was  begun.  The  British  army  in  Bengal  con- 
sisted of  three  brigades ;  one  was  sent  to  join  the  forces 
of  the  Prince  of  Oudh.  The  Rohillas  expostulated  when 
they  realised  the  fate  that  awaited  them,  but  in  vain.     They 

1  Mr.  G.  W.  Forrest's  recently  published  Selections  from  the  State  Papers 
of  the  Oovernors-General  of  India  are  essential  to  an  understanding  of  this 
campaign,  where  too  many  people — myself,  I  regret  to  admit,  among 
others — have  been  misled  by  Macaulay's  brilliant  inaccuracies  in  the 
celebrated  Essay  on  Warren  Hastings. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  111 

offered  a  large  ransom.  It  was  refused.  They  then  deter- 
mined to  defend  themselves  to  the  last. 

A  terrible  battle  was  fought.  '  They  gave  proof/  said  the 
English  officer  in  command,  '  of  a  good  share  of  military 
knowledge  ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  describe  a  more  obstinate 
firmness  of  resolution  than  they  displayed.'  The  day  seemed 
doubtful,  and  the  cowardly  Suja  Dowlah  fled.  But  at 
length  the  Eohilla  army  was  broken  by  the  valour  and  science 
of  the  Europeans.  The  battle  was  lost,  and  with  it  the 
country  which  the  Rohillas  had  made  their  own ;  for  the 
Prince  of  Oudh  reappeared  in  the  hour  of  victory,  and  his 
followers  at  once  began  to  plunder  and  pillage.  The  original 
inhabitants  of  the  country  which  the  Rohillas  had  conquered 
seem  to  have  been  left  undisturbed  ;  but  the  homes  of  the 
Rohillas  were  fired,  and  the  men  who  were  left  ahve  fled  with 
their  wives  and  children  to  the  jungle,  to  the  haunts  of  wild 
beasts  and  venomous  serpents. 

In  the  plunder  that  followed  the  battle  the  British  troops 
took  no  part ;  but,  as  they  watched  the  excesses  of  their 
native  aUies,  they  were  heard  to  grumble  that  '  we  have  had 
all  the  fighting,  and  these  rogues  are  to  have  all  the  profit.' 

Not  all,  however  ;  for  when  the  British  troops  returned 
to  Bengal,  the  treasury  of  the  East  India  Company  was 
richer  by  forty  lakhs  of  rupees.  The  treasury  of  the  Company 
was  replenished,  but  the  honour  of  the  Company  and  of  its 
Governor  was  sullied  ;  for  the  employment  of  the  British 
troops  in  the  Rohilla  campaign,  which  might  have  been 
justified  if  not  very  cordially  approved  had  no  pecuniary 
consideration  been  present  in  the  background,  became  inde- 
fensible when  they  were  hired  as  mercenaries  by  an  ally.^ 

^  Putting  aside  the  exaggerations  of  Burke  and  Macaulay,  the  crux  of 
the  inquiry  into  the  justice  or  injustice  of  the  Rohilla  War  evidently  lies 
in  the  answer  to  the  question,  Would  Hastings  have  allowed  the  British 
troops  to  participate  in  the  campaign  without  payment  for  their  services  ? 
To  that  question  there  can  be  no  precise  answer  ;  but  I  do  not  think  the 
answer  is  doubtful.  Hastings  obviously  disliked  the  transaction  ;  but, 
apart  from  any  political  advantages,  the  money  was  a  great  considera 


112  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

The  treasury  of  the  East  India  Company  was  replenished. 
But  only  for  a  time  ;  in  the  later  years  of  Hastings'  adminis- 
The  Conquest  tration  there  were  heavy  war  expenses  to  be  met ; 
of  Benares.  g^j^(j  j^g  again  cast  about  for  a  large  and  immediate 
supply  of  money.  The  Chait  Sinh  episode  and  the  plmider 
of  the  Begams  of  Oudh  was  the  result.  Chait  Sinh  was 
Raja  of  Benares,  the  sacred  city  of  the  Hindus  :  and  the 
tract  of  country  of  which  Benares  was  the  capital  had  come 
under  the  protection  of  the  East  India  Company  some  years 
before,  when  the  misrule  of  the  Nawab  of  Oudh  had  oppressed 
all  the  neighbouring  pro\nnces.  The  Raja  was  bound  by 
treaty  to  send  an  annual  tribute  to  Calcutta ;  but  in  1778, 
when  Hastings  again  required  money  to  meet  the  cost  of  the 
war  which  had  just  broken  out  with  France,  an  additional 
sum  of  fifty  thousand  pounds  was  demanded  from  the  subject 
prince.  It  was  paid.  The  same  contribution  was  exacted 
in  the  two  subsequent  years. 

Now  Benares  was  a  rich  and  weU-governed  province,  and 
its  Raja  a  popular  and  able  ruler.  But  the  extraordinary 
tribute  seemed  about  to  become  permanent ;  and  it  would 
have  been  a  considerable  drain  on  the  revenues  of  Chait  Sinh. 
He  therefore  offered  secretly  a  large  bribe  to  Hastings,  in 
hopes  that  the  additional  tribute  would  be  excused.  The 
Governor-General  after  some  hesitation  accepted  the  money, 
and  paid  it  over  to  the  Company  ;  but  he  still  insisted  on 
both  the  regular  contribution  and  the  extraordinary  sum. 
Chait  Sinh  pleaded  poverty ;   and  Hastings  at  once  added  a 

tion.  And  the  Select  Committee  repoited  'that 'the  terms  proposed 
appear  highly  advantageous  to  the  Compauy,  not  only  on  account  of  the 
8um  which  is  ultimately  stipulated  as  a  consideration  for  this  service,  but 
by  immediately  relieving  them  from  the  heavy  expense  of  a  large  part  of 
their  army.  Provided,  therefore,  full  assurance  and  security  can  be 
obtained  of  the  Vizier's  intention  and  ability  to  make  good  the  many 
payments  which  will  in  this  event  be  due  to  the  Company  :  Resolved  that 
the  Second  Brigade  now  quartered  at  Dinapore  lie  ordered  to  march  on 
the  Vizier's  requisition.'  {Secret  Select  Committee's  Proceedings,  26th 
November  1773  ;  quoted  by  G.  W.  Forrest.)  The  financial  aspect  of  the 
transaction  was  evidently  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  the  Committee. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  113 

fine  of  ten  thousand  pounds  for  contumacy.  The  money- 
was  paid.  But  still  the  Company's  treasury  was  dry.  Hastings 
therefore  picked  a  quarrel  with  the  Raja,  and  insisted  on  half 
a  million  sterhng. 

To  secure  prompt  payment  he  came  on  a  visit  to  Benares, 
and  was  received  by  the  subject  prince  with  every  mark  of 
reverence.  Chait  Sinh  excused  himself,  and  justly,  from 
giving  way  to  the  extortion  ;  Hastings  at  once  placed  him 
under  arrest. 

But  the  British  force  which  had  accompanied  the  Governor- 
General  was  small ;  it  was  in  a  foreign  province ;  and  the 
inhabitants  of  that  province  were  very  different  men  from 
the  unwarhke  Bengahs.  An  insurrection  broke  out ;  the 
Enghsh  and  their  sepoys  were  almost  exterminated,  and 
Chait  Sinh  escaped. 

Hastings  was  left  in  a  position  of  grave  peril,  with  less  than 
fifty  men  at  his  back ;  the  building  in  which  they  were  en- 
trenched was  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  the  enemy  ;  and  the 
whole  population  of  Benares  had  risen  to  defend  its  prince 
against  the  tyrant. 

Not  for  an  instant,  however,  did  the  cool  courage  of  Hast- 
ings desert  him.  Messengers  were  sent  to  expedite  the  arrival 
of  the  Enghsh  troops  from  Bengal :  in  the  meantime,  the  little 
band  at  Benares  kept  up  a  stubborn  defence.  The  British 
army  came  up-comitry  at  forced  marches  to  the  aid  of  their 
beloved  Governor-General :  the  disorderly  le%'ies  of  the  Raja 
were  easily  defeated  ;  Chait  Sinh  fled  in  despair,  and  never 
returned  ;  and  the  province  of  Benares  was  included  in  the 
territories  of  the  East  India  Compan}'. 

The  conquest  added  an  important  country  and  another  two 
hmidred  thousand  sterling  annually  to  the  British  revenues. 
But   the  immediate  rehef  to   the   treasury  was    The  oucm 
small,  and  the  expenses  of  the  war  were  growing    I'l'iiider. 
ever  greater.     Hastings  was  forced  to  turn  elsewhere  for  yet 
further  supplies.     To  a  not  very  scrupulous  and  desperate 

VOL.  II.  H 


114  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

man,  aware  of  his  own  strength  and  the  weakness  of  those 
among  whom  he  was  placed,  it  was  not  difficult  to  find  another 
object  of  plunder. 

There  were  two  ancient  ladies,  the  mother  of  the  late  and 
the  mother  of  the  existing  Nawab  of  Oudh,  who  were  known 
as  the  Begams  or  Princesses  of  Oudh.  The  revenue  and  the 
administration  of  that  country  were  in  their  hands,  and  they 
were  generally  known  to  be  enormously  wealthy. 

Here,  then,  was  the  opportunity  :  the  pretext  was  soon 
forthcoming.  Hastings  declared  himself  convinced  that  the 
late  disturbances  in  Benares  had  been  fomented  by  them  : 
and  they  were  condemned  to  pay  the  penalty  of  an  enormous 
fine.  They  protested  ;  but  their  protests  were  disregarded. 
The  princesses  were  confined  to  their  rooms,  and  their  food 
was  hmited.  Two  eunuchs  in  their  service  were  tortured. 
Month  after  month  the  extortion  was  continued,  until  at  last 
even  Hastings  reaHsed  that  there  was  no  more  to  be  obtained. 
They  were  therefore  restored  to  liberty ;  but  the  treasury  of 
the  Company  had  in  the  meantime  been  enriched  by  twelve 
hundred  thousand  pounds. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  comment  on  these  proceedings, 
save  to  remark  that  their  only  mitigation  is  that  they  did 
not  spring  from  private  greed  ;  and  that,  had  not  the  require- 
ments of  the  East  India  Company  necessitated  money  from 
any  and  every  available  source,  Hastings  would  certainly 
never  have  stooped  to  such  methods  of  obtaining  it.  It  is, 
however,  impossible  to  refrain  from  noticing  that  even  in  his 
extortion  he  showed  wisdom,  Benares  and  Oudh  were 
plundered ;  but  the  Governor-General  never  touched  his 
own  people  in  Bengal.  He  thought  it  better  that  the  booty 
should  be  obtained  from  strangers,  rather  than  that  the 
province  for  which  he  was  pecuharly  responsible  should 
suffer  ;  and  the  result  was  that  when,  some  years  later,  Burke 
was  thundering  in  Westminster  Hall  against  his  cruelty  to 
the  Indians,  his  humanity  was  a  proverb  among  the  Bengalis, 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  115 

and  Hindu  mothers  sang  their  children  to  sleep  with  a  lullaby 
of  the  glorious  deeds  of  the  great  and  good  Warren  Hastings. 

The  difficulties,  indeed,  with  which  he  had  to  contend  in 
Bengal  were  of  a  difierent  character.  The  Regulating  Act, 
passed  by  the  British  Parliament  in  1773,  had  Dissensions 
come  into  force.  By  it  Hastings  was  appointed  witn  tiie 
first  Governor-General  of  Bengal,  with  control  °"'^°^^- 
over  the  other  two  presidencies  ;  and  he  was  to  be  assisted 
by  four  Councillors.  Of  these  four,  one  was  already  in  India, 
and  he  generally  supported  his  chief  in  the  subsequent  dis- 
agreements. 

The  other  three  came  direct  from  England  :  and  with  the 
captious  spirit  that  marked  their  whole  subsequent  bearing, 
they  had  no  sooner  landed  at  Calcutta  than  they  began  to 
complain.  It  seemed  throughout  that  their  main  idea  was  to 
harass  and  not  to  assist  Hastings  in  the  government  of  India. 

A  few  months  after  their  arrival  he  summed  them  up 
tersely  but  accurately  :  '  The  General  (Clavering)  rummages 
the  consultations  for  disputable  matter.  Monson  receives, 
and  I  have  been  assured  descends  even  to  sohcit,  accusations. 
Francis  writes.'  Led  by  the  latter,  who  from  the  first  was  a 
bitter  and  uncompromising  opponent  of  Hastings,  they  had 
the  majority  in  the  Council :  and  they  straightway  proceeded 
to  inquii'e  into  aU,  and  to  undo  as  much  as  possible,  of  the 
administrative  work  which  the  Governor-General  had  accom- 
pHshed  in  previous  years.  Hastings  was  powerless  ;  though 
head  of  the  Council,  he  was  forced  to  submit  to  their  demands. 

Their  deeds  were  of  Httle  advantage  to  the  country.  '  The 
efiect  of  their  reforms,'  says  Macaulay,  '  was  that  all  protec- 
tion to  fife  and  property  was  withdrawn,  and  that  gangs  of 
robbers  plundered  and  slaughtered  with  impunity  in  the  very 
suburbs  of  Calcutta.' 

The  natives  were  quick  to  mark  the  changed  position  ;  and 
accusations  against  Hastings  began  to  pour  in  from  those 
who  hoped  to  curry  favour  with  the  new  Council.     They 


116  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

were  all  received  witli  alacrity ;  whether  believed  or  not, 
the  charges  were  acted  upon.  Hastings  indignantly  but 
rightly  refused  to  preside  at  a  Council  whose  members  pre- 
sumed to  sit  in  judgment  upon  him,  and  whose  personal  vin- 
dictiveness  was  evident  to  all  the  other  English  residents  in 
the  presidency  ;  and  after  a  violent  altercation,  he  left  the 
meeting. 

The  worst  accusation  against  the  Governor-General  had 
been  brought  by  Nuncumar.  The  two  men  had  never  been 
friends,  even  in  early  days  at  Murshidabad ;  and  since  Hastings 
had  used  the  Hindu  as  a  tool  in  deposing  Muhammed  Reza 
Khan  and  abolishing  the  dual  government,  Nuncumar  had 
hated  the  Governor  of  Bengal  with  the  cunning  patient  hate 
that  can  await  the  day  of  reckoning  for  years.  With  the 
arrival  of  Sir  Philip  Francis  came  at  last  the  opportunity  he 
sought.  He  charged  Hastings  with  putting  ofl&ces  up  to 
sale,  with  taking  bribes  and  conniving  at  the  escape  of 
criminals,  and  with  other  equally  serious  offences. 

Francis  eagerly  accepted  the  accusations,  which  Nuncumar 
professed  himself  ready  to  prove  beyond  the  shadow  of  doubt ; 
but  when  he  was  called  upon  to  do  so,  he  was  unable  to  pro- 
duce the  evidence  upon  which  his  charges  rested.  The  failure 
of  so  vindictive  an  enemy  to  substantiate  his  accusations 
against  Hastings  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  baselessness  of 
his  charges. 

But  the  end  of  Nuncumar's  long  career  was  now  near  at 
hand.  An  old  accusation  of  forgery  was  still  hanging  over 
his  head,  for  which  he  had  been  imprisoned  for  contempt  of 
court  and  released  by  Hastings  some  time  before  the  Council 
had  arrived  in  India  ;  and  the  trial  had  stood  over  for  the 
consideration  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Judicature  in  Bengal, 
the  new  Judicial  Court  which  had  been  set  up  by  the  Regu- 
lating Act  of  1773. 

The  judges  of  that  Court  had  now  arrived  in  India ;  and 
Nuncumar  was  brought  before  them  in  due  course.     There 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  117 

can  be  little  doubt  that  Francis  and  his  supporters  on  the 
Council  would  have  prevented  the  trial  of  the  enemy  of 
Hastings  had  it  been  within  their  power  to  do  so  ;  but  the 
Regulating  Act  had  placed  the  administration  of  justice 
beyond  the  control  of  the  Council. 

On  the  8th  June  1775  the  trial  of  Nuncumar  began  before 
Chief- Justice  Impey,  three  other  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
and  a  jury.  The  case  had  aroused  enormous  interest,  and 
the  old  Mayor's  Court  of  Calcutta  was  crowded  with  spec- 
tators ;  for  Nuncumar  had  been  a  leading  man  in  Bengal 
for  many  years  past,  and  his  recent  accusations  against  the 
Governor-General  were  known  to  the  public. 

The  trial  was  prolonged  for  several  days,  for  the  case  was 
difficult  and  complicated.  The  evidence  was  intricate  ;  and 
the  fact  that  it  was  necessary  to  interpret  it  continually 
delayed  the  proceedings.  Many  of  the  witnesses  for  the 
defence  were  evidently  perjuring  themselves  ;  and  the  judges, 
who  were  unaccustomed  to  the  gross  perjury  that  prevails 
in  the  East,  were  compelled  to  examine  them  somewhat 
closely. 

But  at  length  the  case  drew  to  a  close.  Chief- Justice  Impey 
began  his  charge  to  the  jury,  and  he  was  about  to  direct  them 
to  acquit  the  prisoner  when  Nuncumar  demanded  that  one  of 
his  witnesses  should  be  recalled.  The  request  was  allowed  ; 
but  the  accused,  who  had  wished  to  fortify  his  case  by  further 
evidence,  had  unknowingly  wrought  his  own  ruin.  The  de- 
meanour of  the  witness  was  suspicious  ;  his  evidence  was 
palpably  false ;  and  the  case  for  the  defence  broke  down 
completely. 

The  jury,  after  proper  direction,  consulted  together  in 
private  ;  Nuncumar  was  found  guilty,  and  sentenced  to  death. 
The  condemned  criminal  appealed  with  piteous  entreaty  to 
Francis  ;  but  Francis  did  not  move  a  finger  to  succour  the 
man  whose  accusations  he  had  been  so  ready  to  accept ;  and 
Nuncumar  was  executed. 


118  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

By  the  evidence  of  tlie  case  and  the  letter  of  the  English 
law,  he  was  certainly  guilty  of  the  ofience  with  which  he  was 
charged.  And  the  extreme  sentence  of  the  Enghsh  law  for 
forgery  at  that  time  was  death,  although  the  capital  penalty 
was  not  always  enforced  even  in  England.  But  the  English 
law  had  only  recently  been  introduced  in  India,  and  forgery 
was  considered  a  venial  crime  in  the  East. 

These  considerations  might  have  been  urged  on  behalf  of 
Nuncumar ;  but  they  were  not.  For  the  interest  which 
Calcutta  had  taken  in  the  case  had  little  to  do  with  the 
abstract  theory  of  law  ;  it  had  little  to  do  even  with  the  actual 
guilt  of  Nuncumar.  The  popular  interest  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  Nuncumar  and  Hastings  were  deadly  enemies,  and  that 
Hastings  stood  alone  in  Bengal,  while  Nuncumar  had  the 
support  of  the  Comicil.  The  acquittal  of  Nuncumar  would 
therefore  have  been  regarded  as  a  convincing  proof  that  the 
Governor-General  had  lost  his  power  in  Bengal,  and  accusa- 
tions against  him  would  have  been  multiphed  by  the  thou- 
sand. The  condemnation  and  execution  of  Nuncumar,  on 
the  other  hand,  were  at  once  taken  as  a  signal  victory  of 
Hastings  over  his  powerful  enemy. 

The  coincidence  between  the  accusation  which  Nuncumar 
had  brought  against  Hastings,  and  the  execution  of  Nuncumar 
so  shortly  afterwards  was  at  least  suspicious  ;  and  many  of 
the  enemies  of  Hastings,  in  England  as  well  as  in  Bengal, 
beheved  that  he  had  instigated  the  prosecution  of  Nuncumar 
before  the  Supreme  Court,  and  that  he  had  influenced  the  sen- 
tence which  was  passed  upon  the  forger.  But  no  satisfactory 
evidence  in  support  of  that  supposition  has  ever  been  dis- 
covered ;  and  although  determined  attempts  have  been  made 
to  manufacture  the  evidence  that  was  not  forthcoming,  and 
to  blacken  the  character  of  Judge  Impey  in  order  to  reflect 
on  Hastings,  these  attempts  have  all  been  shown  to  be 
baseless. 

But  if  Hastings  was  innocent  of  tampering  with  the  course 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  119 

of  justice  the  execution  of  Nuncumar  had  served  him  in  good 
stead.  From  that  day  there  were  no  more  accusations,  true 
or  false,  brought  against  him  before  the  Council. 

And  in  time  he  was  once  more  master  of  Bengal.  One  of 
the  members  of  the  Council  died ;  and  by  his  own  vote,  his 
casting  vote  as  Governor,  and  the  vote  of  his  old  supporter 
from  the  first,  Hastings  could  now  override  the  malice  of  his 
opponents.  Sir  Philip  Francis  indeed  continued  to  grumble, 
to  criticise,  and  to  interfere ;  but  now  that  he  was  in  a 
minority,  he  was  harmless. 

One  last  quarrel  there  was.  '  I  do  not,'  said  Hastings  at 
one  of  the  meetings, '  trust  to  Mr.  Francis'  promises  of  candour, 
convinced  that  he  is  incapable  of  it.  I  judge  of  his  public 
conduct  by  his  private,  which  I  have  found  to  be  void  of  truth 
and  honour.'  The  harsh  words  were  thoroughly  justified, 
but  a  challenge  naturally  followed ;  and  Hastings  was  im- 
prudent enough  to  risk  his  life  in  a  duel,  in  which,  however, 
Francis  was  wounded. 

The  latter  recovered,  and  formal  meetings  continued  at 
the  Council  Board  ;  but  Francis  soon  afterwards  returned  to 
England,  where,  from  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  he 
continued  to  declaim  against  Hastings  and  all  his  work  in 
India  with  unabated  vigour  and  unceasing  hate.  When 
the  Governor-General  finally  returned  from  Bengal,  Francis 
was  one  of  the  chief  agitators  for  his  impeachment ;  but  for 
the  remainder  of  the  great  administrator's  career  in  the  East, 
the  malice  of  his  opponent  touched  him  no  more.^ 

Thus  victorious  over  his  enemy  on  the  Council,  Hastings 
disavowed  the  resignation  that,  in  a  moment  of  ihe  imperial 
despair,  he  had  instructed  his  agent  in  London  Danger, 
to  hand  to  the  East  India  Company ;    and  though  he  was 

^  Sir  Philip  Francis  died,  as  he  had  lived,  a  disappointed  and  bitter 
man.  It  had  been  his  ambition  to  be  appointed  (Joveruor-General  of 
India,  and  he  continued  for  many  years  to  hope  that  the  post  would  be 
oflFered  to  him ;  but  happily  for  the  British  Empire  in  India,  his  desire 
was  not  gratified. 


120  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

censured  both  by  his  employers  and  by  Parhament  for  his 
arbitrary  acts,  neither  the  directors  of  the  Company  nor  the 
ministers  of  the  Crown  were  prepared  to  dismiss  him.  The 
dangers  then  threatening  the  Empire  on  all  sides  were  far 
too  serious  to  allow  of  one  of  its  foremost  men  being  recalled 
to  answer  for  his  crimes,  however  great  those  crimes  were 
believed  to  be. 

The  crisis  was  indeed  a  terrible  one.  The  English  colonies 
in  America  were  in  revolt,  and  the  British  armies  were  not 
victorious  against  them.  France  had  been  quick  to  seize  the 
opportunity,  and  had  declared  war  against  her  neighbour. 
Spain  had  followed  France.  Everywhere  Britain  seemed 
about  to  lose  those  magnificent  conquests  which  had  been 
made  under  the  first  Pitt ;  everywhere,  that  is,  but  in  India. 
And  even  in  India  the  situation  was  black  enough.  The 
news  of  our  defeats  in  the  West  might  reach  the  East  at  any 
time  ;  a  native  rebellion  would  follow  as  a  matter  of  course. 
There  were  already  many  indications  of  local  unrest.  The 
French  were  known  to  have  designs  on  India  :  and  their 
capacity  as  leaders  of  native  levies  and  as  rulers  of  other 
races  had  already  been  well  proved.  So  long  as  a  states- 
man of  the  capacity  of  Warren  Hastings  remained  at  the 
head  of  affairs,  there  was  a  reasonable  probability  of  safety 
in  the  East :  if  he  were  removed,  it  was  a  matter  of  chance 
whether  a  second  Chve  would  step  into  the  breach.  Hast- 
ings, therefore,  though  censured  by  his  employers  for  those 
deeds  which  he  would  not  have  committed  but  for  their 
continual  demands  for  money,  and  though  blamed  by  Parlia- 
ment for  acts  to  which  he  was  driven  by  those  Councillors 
whom  Parliament  itself  had  approved,  was  suffered  to  remain 
Governor-General  of  India.  His  countrymen  generously 
refrained  from  putting  Hastings  on  trial  until  after  he  had 
saved  the  Empire  for  them. 

Meanwhile,  a  complicated  series  of  events  had  already 
led  up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  first  important  war  since  the 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  121 

departure  of  Clive  from  the  East.     The  Marathas  were  the 
great  military  confederation  of  the  Hindus  ;   and  since  their 
rise  in  the  seventeenth  century  on  the  ruins  of    .^.j^g  p^^.^^, 
the  Mughal  Empire,  there  were  few  parts  of  India    Maratha 
that  had  not  felt  their  power. 

About  the  year  1634,  when  the  whole  government  of  the 
peninsula  was  in  confusion,  an  adventurer  had  begun  to  play 
a  conspicuous  part  in  the  struggles  of  the  Deccan.  In  his 
own  district  he  quickly  became  supreme.  Native  levies 
formed  his  armies,  and  a  primitive  but  terrible  warfare  was 
waged.  The  neighbouring  peasants,  of  whom  his  troops 
mainly  consisted,  were  called  together  at  the  slacker  periods 
of  the  agricultural  year,  and  armed  and  mounted  by  him  ; 
and  they  swept  down  upon  their  enemies,  who  for  the 
purposes  of  plunder  were  anybody  whose  possessions  were 
great  enough  to  be  attractive.  Part  of  the  booty  was  made 
over  to  the  victorious  peasant-soldiery,  who  returned  well- 
rewarded  to  their  homes  ;  part  remained  to  the  leader  of  this 
strange  army,  who  retired  to  his  strongholds  in  the  hills 
until  necessity  or  humour  should  prompt  another  raid. 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  the  great  Maratha  confederation. 
The  system  grew  and  flourished  ;  a  number  of  kings  or  chiefs 
arose  in  various  parts  of  India,  loosely  alHed  in  common 
defence  ;  and  later  the  general  centre  of  the  community  was 
estabUshed  at  Poona. 

When  the  mihtary  head  of  the  confederation  sank,  as  did 
the  autocrat  of  every  Asiatic  monarchy  after  two  or  three 
generations,  into  an  effeminate  and  slothful  fop,  caring  only 
to  Hve  in  luxury,  to  toy  with  dancing-girls  and  to  chew 
bhang,  the  nominal  chieftainship  was  still  vested  in  him ; 
but  the  real  rulers  of  the  Marathas  from  that  time  were  the 
Peshwas,  whose  position  as  mayors  of  the  palace  at  Poona 
was  much  the  same  as  that  of  the  masters  of  the  French 
Merovingians. 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  however, 


122  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

the  strength  of  the  Marathas  decUned  somewhat,  and  they 
could  no  longer  continue  altogether  successfully  their  old 
poHcy  of  balancing  the  power  of  the  great  potentates  of 
the  north  of  India  against  the  growing  Musalman  States 
of  the  south  in  Haidarabad  and  Mysore.  But  they  were 
still  a  formidable  foe.  In  the  year  1742  they  invaded  and 
plundered  Bengal  as  far  as  Murshidabad ;  and  the  terror 
of  the  English  residents  of  Calcutta  lest  their  city  also  should 
fall  a  prey  to  the  robbers  was  shown  by  the  great  semicircular 
moat  which  was  hurriedly  constructed,  and  which  is  still 
known  by  the  name  of  the  '  Maratha  ditch.* 

But  when  Clive  had  consohdated  the  British  power  in 
Bengal,  the  Marathas  were  no  longer  able  to  menace  that 
rich  province  ;  in  1761  they  were  defeated  in  a  great  battle 
by  the  Mohammedans ;  and  from  that  day  they  seemed 
doomed  to  gradual  decay  and  extinction,  as  numberless 
other  similar  confederations  had  decayed  and  died  out  before 
them. 

In  these  circumstances,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  British 
Council  at  Bombay,  wishing  with  pardonable  enthusiasm  to 
emulate  the  policy  of  expansion  so  successfully  pursued  by 
Chve  and  Hastings  in  Bengal,  should  have  decided  to  place 
their  own  creature  on  the  throne  of  Poona.  The  Treaty  of 
Surat  was  the  consequence  of  a  long  continuance  of  diplomatic 
intrigues  between  Bombay  and  Poona ;  the  aim  of  the 
British  was  apparently  achieved,  and  their  nominee  reigned 
for  a  time  over  the  Marathas. 

But  not  for  long  was  he  suffered  to  remain  in  quiet  posses- 
sion. The  military  confederation  of  Western  India  was  of 
a  different  character  from  the  supple  and  enfeebled  BengaHs  ; 
and  war  soon  broke  out  between  the  Marathas  and  the 
British,  which  the  Bombay  presidency  found  itself  ill-equipped 
to  wage  successfully. 

The  Treaty  of  Surat  had  been  disapproved  by  Warren 
Hastings  from  the  moment  he  heard  of  it ;   he  foresaw  that 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  123 

it  would  merely  result  in  embittering  the  constant  disputes 
between  the  Marathas  and  the  Government  of  Bombay  into 
war.  And  there  were  already  rumours  of  French  intrigues 
with  the  Court  of  Poona,  of  French  promises  to  assist  the 
Marathas  against  the  English,  of  French  schemes  to  set  up 
a  second  Empire  in  the  East. 

But  when  war  broke  out  between  the  Marathas  and  Bombay, 
England  and  France  were  still  nominally  at  peace.  The 
situation  was  a  delicate  one ;  but  Hastings  immediately 
sent  the  whole  force  of  the  Bengal  army  to  the  aid  of 
Bombay ;  and  when  shortly  afterwards  the  news  arrived 
by  letter  from  the  British  Consul  at  Cairo  that  the  long- 
expected  war  with  France  had  broken  out,  the  few  remaining 
French  settlements  in  Bengal  were  seized,  and  instructions 
were  sent  to  Madras  that  Pondicherri  should  be  occupied  - 
at  once.  MiKtary  works  were  thrown  up  near  Calcutta  ; 
arrangements  were  made  for  the  defence  of  the  river  Hugh ; 
nine  new  battaKons  of  sepoys  were  raised,  and  a  corps  of 
native  artillery  were  formed  of  the  Lascars  from  the  Bay  of 
Bengal. 

The  practical  genius  of  Hastings  was  shown  by  these  steps  : 
and,  so  far  as  Bengal  was  concerned,  he  could  now  await 
the  war  with  calmness,  unless  a  large  French  force  should 
arrive  and  join  itself  with  the  Marathas,  and  possibly  also 
with  the  two  great  Mohammedan  powers  of  the  south, 
Haidarabad  and  Mysore — a  somewhat  unHkely  contingency. 

But  in  Bombay  the  position  was  more  difl&cult.  The 
British  army  that  was  stationed  in  that  presidency  had  been 
surrounded  by  the  Marathas,  and  forced  to  agree  to  a 
humiliating  convention  at  Wargaum ;  and  the  troops  which 
had  been  sent  from  Bengal  had  to  undertake  a  long  and 
perilous  journey  through  the  peninsula  from  coast  to  coast 
before  they  could  be  of  assistance. 

But  Goddard,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  latter  contingent, 
succeeded  in  forcing  his  way  across  India,  and,  in  addition, 


124  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

seized  the  great  province  of  Guzerat  almost  without  striking 
a  blow.  Captain  Popham,  too,  attempted  and  achieved  a 
feat  which  even  the  daring  Sir  Eyre  Coote  stigmatised  as 
'  absolute  madness  ' ;  he  attacked  by  storm,  and  captured, 
the  rock-fortress  of  Gwalior,  which  had  been  called  the  key 
of  India. 

The  effect  of  these  victories,  and  especially  of  this  last 
brilliant  exploit,  on  the  natives,  must  have  been  great ;  and 
Hastings  began  to  question  whether  it  would  not  be  advis- 
able to  crush  the  whole  dangerous  Maratha  confederation  in 
one  struggle,  and  to  bring  all  the  States  loosely  alUed  under 
that  name  to  acknowledge  the  paramount  British  authority, 
before  permitting  peace  to  be  made.  Gwalior  was  already 
in  English  hands  ;  but  the  capital  of  Poona  was  still  the  seat 
of  the  Peshwas  ;  and  the  other  three  centres  of  Maratha 
power,  Indore,  Baroda,  and  Nagpur,  were  as  yet  untouched. 

It  would  have  been  a  happy  thing  for  British  India  had 
the  Governor-General  been  able  to  carry  out  his  idea  of  over- 
throwing the  Maratha  States ;  for  they  remained  a  menace 
for  many  years  afterwards,  and  were  only  conquered  eventu- 
ally after  two  long^nd  arduous  wars  in 'the  next  century. 
But  after  the  first  onslaught,  the  British  found  themselves 
opposed  with  a  resolution  which,  if  it  did  not  result  in  their 
defeat,  at  least  checked  their  advance  :  and  for  long  the 
contest  remained  undecided. 

Eventually  the  first  Maratha  War  was  concluded  tamely 
in  the  year  1782  by  the  Treaty  of  Salbai.  The  British 
dominions  were  enlarged  by  the  retention  of  Salsette,  with 
Elephanta  and  two  other  small  islands  ;  but  except  for  these 
wretched  acquisitions — poor  reward  for  three  years'  fighting 
— the  status  quo  was  restored.  The  conflict,  profitless  at 
best,  had  made  considerable  demands  on  the  British  Indian 
revenues,  which  Warren  Hastings  found  it  difficult  to 
replenish  :  he  had  long  been  sick  of  a  war  which  was  not  of 
his  making,  and  which  he  had  disapproved  from  the  first ; 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  125 

and  when  the  new  and  terrible  name  of  Haidar  Ali  of  Mysore 
began  to  be  heard  from  end  to  end  of  India  as  that  of  the 
most  formidable  native  foe  the  Enghsh  had  ever  had  to 
encounter  in  the  peninsula,  he  hastened  to  make  peace  with 
the  Marathas  on  the  best  terms  he  could. 

To  Hastings,  indeed,  was  unjustly  given  the  blame  of  the 
war  having  occurred  at  all.  '  The  Maratha  War  has  been, 
and  is  yet,  called  mine,  God  knows  why,'  he  complained  in 
1780  ;  '  I  was  forced  into  it.  It  began  with  the  acts  of  others 
unknown  to  me.  Perhaps  the  war  with  Haidar  may  be, 
in  Uke  manner,  called  my  war.'  ^ 

The  Government  of  Bombay  had  been  too  forward  in  trying 
to  extend  its  possessions  ;  the  Government  of  Madras  had 
pursued  a  policy  the  exact  reverse.  The  result  The  First 
was  the  same  in  both  cases,  a  prolonged  and  profit-  Mysore  War. 
less  war  ;  but  as  the  penalties  of  daring  are  commonly  less 
than  those  of  timidity,  so  was  the  war  with  the  Marathas 
insignificant  in  comparison  to  that  with  Mysore.  The  Govern- 
ment of  Madras  had  been  for  years  notorious  for  its  feeble 

^  The  policy  of  Hastings  was  essentially  pacific  ;  it  cannot  be  better 
defined  than  in  his  own  words :  '  The  land  required  years  of  quiet  to 
restore  its  population  and  culture ;  and  all  my  acts  were  acts  of  peace. 
I  was  busied  in  raising  a  great  and  weighty  fabric,  of  which  all  the  parts 
were  yet  loose,  and  destitute  of  the  superior  weight  which  was  to  give 
them  their  support,  and,  if  I  may  so  express  myself,  their  collateral 
strength.  A  tempest  or  an  earthquake  could  not  be  more  fatal  to  a 
builder  whose  walls  were  uncovered,  and  his  unfinished  columns  trembling 
in  the  breeze,  than  the  ravages  or  terrors  of  war  to  me  and  all  my 
hopes.  ...  I  should  have  sought  no  accession  of  territory.  I  should 
have  rejected  the  offer  of  any  position  which  would  have  enlarged  our  line 
of  defence,  without  a  more  than  proportionate  augmentation  of  defensive 
strength  and  revenue.  I  should  have  encouraged,  but  not  solicited,  new 
alliances.  .  .  .  These  I  should  have  observed  as  my  religion.  .  .  .  Biit 
though  I  profess  the  doctrine  of  peace,  I  by  no  means  pretend  to  have 
followed  it  with  so  implicit  a  devotion  as  to  make  sacrifices  to  it.  I  have 
never  yielded  a  substantial  right  which  I  could  assert,  or  submitted  to 
a  wrong  wliich  I  couid  repel  with  a  moral  assurance  of  success  .  .  .  and 
I  can  allude  to  instances  in  which  I  should  have  deemed  it  criminal  not 
to  have  hazarded  both  the  public  safety  and  my  own,  in  a  crisis  of 
uncommon  and  adequate  emergency,  or  in  an  occasion  of  dangerous 
example.'  The  singularly  graceful  literary  style  in  which  Hastings  wrote 
justified  his  old  master  at  Westminster  School,  who  had  wished  him  to 
devote  his  life  to  letters. 


126  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

and  irresolute  character.  Wlien  Dupleix  was  dreaming  of  a 
French  Asiatic  Empire  at  Pondicherri,  the  English  at  Madras 
saw  nothing  beyond  their  ledgers.  CHve  saved  them  on  that 
occasion  ;  and  when,  a  few  years  later,  peril  again  threatened 
them,  they  could  do  nothing  for  themselves,  but  insisted  on 
his  immediate  return  from  Bengal  to  succour  them.  They 
were  for  ever  sending  plaintive  accounts  of  their  troubles  to 
London.  In  1770  they  wrote  to  the  directors  that  '  to  give 
you  a  clear  representation  of  the  dangers  and  embarrass- 
ments through  which  we  have  been  strugghng  ...  is  a  task 
beyond  our  abilities.'  The  next  year  it  was  '  with  infinite 
concern  the  Committee  observed  that  notwithstanding  their 
repeated  and  earnest  representations  to  the  Court  of  Directors 
...  we  still  find  ourselves  not  only  without  orders,  but  without 
the  least  intimation  of  their  opinion  thereon.'  They  could  do 
nothing  without  extraneous  advice  ;  and  when  by  chance  they 
made  a  move  alone,  they  blundered.  In  the  uncertain  state 
of  India  in  the  eighteenth  century,  a  crisis  was  certain  sooner 
or  later  to  confront  every  European  settlement ;  but  when- 
ever one  confronted  Madras,  the  English  Council  there  invari- 
ably proved  themselves  incompetent  to  deal  with  it. 

It  was  through  their  egregious  folly  that  war  was  pro- 
voked with  Haidar  Ali,  Sultan  of  Mysore ;  and  it  was  on 
their  culpably  defenceless  presidency  that  there  descended, 
in  Burke's  magnificent  phrase,  '  the  black  cloud  that  hung 
for  a  while  on  the  dechvities  of  the  mountains,  the  menacing 
meteor  which  blackened  all  the  horizon  until  it  suddenly 
burst,  and  poured  down  the  whole  of  its  contents  upon  the 
plains  of  the  Karnatic' 

Some  thirty  years  previously,  when  the  fall  of  the  Mughal 

Empire    had    given   India   over   to   anarchy,   a   Musalman 

adventurer  had  begun  to  distinguish  himself  in 

the  wars  of  the  South.     His  ancestry  was  mean  ; 

his  grandfather  had  been  a  wandering  dervish,  his  father  a 

petty  revenue  officer.     He  himself  had  received  no  educa- 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  127 

tion  ;  he  could  not  even  read  the  alphabet.  But  as  a  soldier 
of  fortune  he  made  his  way  rapidly  ;  as  a  general,  none  could 
equal  him.  In  the  then  condition  of  India,  it  was  no  great 
step  from  head  of  an  army  to  ruler  of  a  province,  and  from 
that  again  to  autocrat  of  a  kingdom  ;  and  Haidar  Ah,  after 
having  passed  through  these  prehminary  grades,  in  course  of 
time  became  Sultan  of  Mysore. 

What  he  had  been  ambitious  enough  to  obtain  he  was 
clever  enough  to  keep.  A  crowd  of  lesser  men  continued  to 
struggle  among  themselves  for  other  parts  of  India  ;  but  few 
were  able  to  touch  Mysore  while  Haidar  ruled  it.  He  oppressed 
his  people  :  but  no  minor  parasites  were  allowed  to  fatten  at 
their  expense  ;  and  on  the  whole  he  ruled  firmly  and  well,  and 
was  looked  up  to  by  his  subjects  with  respect,  perhaps  with 
affection. 

It  was  this  man  whom  the  Government  of  Madras  pro- 
voked to  war.  He  had  already  fought  not  unsuccessfully 
with  the  English ;  but  some  years  previously,  when  the 
Marathas  had  invaded  his  dominions,  he  had  sought  an  alliance 
with  Madras  ;  and  his  overtures  had  been  rejected.  A  little 
later,  he  had  again  opened  negotiations  for  the  same  purpose  ; 
and  again  he  had  been  repulsed. 

From  that  time,  the  Sultan  of  Mysore  had  looked  to  the 
French  for  aid.  Intercourse  became  friendly  between  Haidar 
and  the  authorities  at  Pondicherri.  French  adventurers 
trained  and  led  his  troops  ;  the  arms  and  military  stores  of 
Mysore  were  suppHed  by  France.  When  war  broke  out 
between  England  and  France,  the  feeble  French  settlement  at 
Pondicherri  was  reduced  at  once  ;  and  Haidar,  as  a  matter 
of  appearance,  congratulated  the  British  on  their  success. 
But  he  took  care  at  the  same  time  to  declare  that  he  would 
be  ofiended  if  Mahe,  the  remaining  French  settlement  on  the 
opposite  coast,  was  captured ;  and  he  threatened  that,  if  it 
were,  he  would  invade  the  Karnatic. 

His  words  were  disregarded,  and  Mahe  was  taken  by  the 


128  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

British.  Burning  with  resentment,  and  with  a  keen  memory 
of  the  continued  refusal  of  the  Madras  Council  to  ally 
themselves  with  him,  and  with  a  yet  keener  recollection 
of  agreements  which  they  had  broken,  Haidar  prepared  for 
revenge. 

He  was  now  an  old  man  ;  but  there  was  no  sign  of  age  in 
his  movements.  He  first  made  peace  with  his  perpetual 
enemies,  the  Marathas.  An  alliance  was  concluded  with  his 
neighbour,  the  Nizam  of  Haidarabad.  The  two  most  power- 
ful Musalman  powers  of  Southern  India  thus  united,  Haidar 
prepared  for  the  attack.  The  army  of  Mysore  had  been 
steadily  enlarged  during  the  past  two  years,  and  it  was  now 
ready  for  immediate  service.  The  mihtary  stores  which  he 
had  obtained  from  France  were  requisitioned. 

Part  of  the  army  was  moved  to  the  border  of  Mysore,  where 
it  looked  down  over  the  wild  descent  which  led  into  the  flat 
Karnatic  beneath  ;  and  the  road  to  one  of  the  principal  passes 
was  already  being  cleared. 

All  these  preparations  were  known  to  the  English  at  Madras  ; 
of  many  they  had  been  aware  for  some  time.  Yet  nothing 
was  done  to  protect  the  important  British  interests  in  the 
Karnatic.  '  What  can  we  do  ?  '  asked  the  Governor  of  the 
presidency  feebly,  *  we  have  no  money,  but  we  mean  to 
assemble  an  army.' 

The  next  day  the  news  arrived  that  Porto  Novo  and  the 
district  within  fifty  miles  of  Madras  had  been  plundered ; 
that  Haidar 's  army  was  a  hundred  thousand  strong ;  that 
a  corps  of  Frenchmen  were  among  his  auxiliaries. 

And  wherever  the  army  of  Haidar  went,  it  brought  ruin  and 
destruction.  The  houses  were  fired,  the  crops  destroyed  ; 
the  people  fled  to  the  mountains  and  the  forests.  The  whole 
of  the  Karnatic  seemed  about  to  be  destroyed. 

Nor  was  this  all.  A  few  days  later  Madras  itself  was 
threatened  ;  and  many  of  the  English  merchants  took  refuge 
in  Fort  St.  George,  for  the  country  around  was  in  the  hands 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  129 

of  Haidar,  and  the  sight  of  the  burning  villages  in  the  vicinity 
inspired  awful  forebodings  as  to  the  fate  of  the  capital. 

Suddenly,  however,  Haidar  determined  to  capture  Arcot 
before  attempting  Madras  ;  and  he  immediately  attacked 
and  took  that  fortress.  Meanwhile  the  presidential  govern- 
ment was  in  a  miserable  condition.  They  had  no  money, 
and  the  neighbouring  princes  pleaded  poverty  when  a  loan 
was  desired.  An  army  indeed  there  was  ;  but  the  British 
ofl&cers  were  ignorant  of  Haidar 's  movements,  while  every 
act  of  theirs  was  conveyed  to  him  at  once  by  the  natives. 
The  troops  were  in  two  detachments  ;  each  was  attacked 
separately  by  Haidar  :  both  were  defeated.  One  was 
destroyed  ;  the  other  fled. 

Nothing  now  lay  between  Madras  and  destruction.  The 
Enghsh  who  were  there  were  not  the  men  to  rise  superior  to 
their  difficulties,  and  to  organise  victory  out  of  defeat.  With 
the  exception  of  a  few  forts,  which  still  offered  resistance, 
the  whole  south  of  India  was  in  the  hands  of  Haidar  Ah. 

No  help  could  be  expected  from  England,  for  England  was 
herself  in  sore  straits  ;  and,  in  any  case,  any  help  that  might 
have  been  sent  from  Europe  would  have  arrived  too  late.  In 
Warren  Hastings'  emphatic  expression,  '  the  Company's  exist- 
ence .  .  .  vibrated  to  the  edge  of  perdition,  and  it  has  at  all 
times  been  suspended  by  a  thread  so  fine  that  the  touch  of 
chance  might  break,  or  the  breath  of  opinion  dissolve  it : 
and  instantaneous  will  be  its  faU  whenever  it  shall  happen.' 
And  it  was  Hastings,  in  fact,  who  again  saved  the  Company 
at  this  crisis. 

A  swift  ship  carried  the  news  of  the  Mysore  outbreak  from 
Madras  to  Calcutta ;  and  within  twenty-four  hours  tlie 
Governor-General  of  Bengal  had  thought  out  a  complete 
new  plan  of  policy,  adapted  to  the  altered  condition  of  affairs. 
Every  nerve  must  be  strained  to  preserve  the  Karnatic  for 
the  empire.  The  Maratha  War  had  been  important ;  it  was 
now  only  a  secondary  consideration.    Fifteen  lakhs  of  rupees, 

VOL.  II.  I 


130  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

and  all  the  available  troops  of  Bengal,  were  sent  to  Madras ; 
some  difficulty  only  occurring  with  the  sepoys,  whose  reUgion 
did  not  permit  them  to  travel  by  sea.  Sir  Phihp  Francis, 
indeed,  raised  objections  in  the  Council  Room  :  he  would  have 
sent  only  half  the  money,  and  no  military  aid  at  all.  But 
the  day  when  he  could  seriously  embarrass  Hastings  was 
over ;  and  his  suggestions,  which  if  carried  out  would  in- 
evitably have  lost  the  Karnatic,  were  disregarded.  But  this 
was  not  all.  The  Governor  of  Fort  St.  George  was  evidently 
utterly  incompetent ;  and  Hastings,  by  a  bold  exercise  of 
power,  determined  to  suspend  him.  Sir  Eyre  Coote  was 
despatched  to  take  charge  of  all  the  operations  against  Haidar 
Ali. 

Coote  was  now  past  his  prime,  and  his  constitution  was 
undermined  by  disease ;  but  he  had  still  much  of  the  great 
abiUty  which  he  had  shown  at  Wandewash.  He  reached 
Madras  on  5th  November  1780  ;  and  so  httle  time  had  been 
lost  by  Hastings  in  organising  relief  that  the  French  fleet 
which  it  had  been  feared  would  intercept  the  British  trans- 
ports had  not  yet  arrived. 

On  17th  January  1781  Coote  marched  northwards,  hoping 
to  draw  Haidar  in  pursuit.  He  succeeded  ;  but  Haidar,  with 
considerable  cunning,  drew  the  Enghsh  general  further  inland 
by  threatening  Cuddalur,  and  then  swung  round  and  inter- 
posed his  army  between  Coote  and  the  British  base  of  action 
at  Madras. 

Coote  retreated  to  Porto  Novo,  near  the  coast ;  but  his 
position  was  now  precarious  in  the  extreme.  His  whole 
army  was  only  six  thousand  sepoys  and  two  thousand  English, 
while  Haidar  was  forty  thousand  strong.  If  Coote  were 
defeated,  the  loss  of  Madras  was  certain  ;  and  even  Hastings 
could  not  improvise  another  army  to  reconquer  the  Karnatic. 

In  these  circumstances,  the  Sultan  of  Mysore  expected  an 
easy  victory  ;  and  Coote  determined  to  give  battle.  Indeed, 
he  could  do  nothing  else ;  and  one  who  had  been  present  as 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  131 

a  young  man  at  Plassey  would  not  fear  to  fight  against  odds, 
even  though  the  army  he  had  now  to  encounter  was  led  by  a 
very  different  man  from  the  supine  Nawab  of  Murshidabad. 
On  1st  July  1781  the  great  battle  of  Porto  Novo  took  place, 
and  Haidar  Ali  was  utterly  defeated. 

Coote  followed  up  his  successes  by  further  attacks  on  the 
remnants  of  Mysorean  power  in  the  Karnatic  ;  until,  com- 
pletely worn  out,  his  health  gave  way,  and  he  was  forced  to 
return  to  Calcutta.  Even  then  he  still  wished  to  serve  his 
country  ;  and  at  the  earhest  possible  moment,  long  indeed 
before  he  was  fit  for  work,  he  went  back  again  to  Madras. 

But  although  Coote  was  no  more  than  fifty-seven  years  of 
age,  the  brave  man^s  body  was  exhausted  by  his  long  and 
arduous  life  in  the  field ;  and  in  1783,  two  days  after  his 
arrival  at  the  southern  capital,  he  died.  Sir  Eyre  Coote 
was  not,  and  would  never  have  thought  of  placing  himself, 
in  the  same  rank  held  by  men  Hke  Chve  ;  but  in  the  annals 
of  our  Indian  Empire  the  victor  of  Wandewash  and  Porto 
Novo  holds  no  inconspicuous  place,  as  the  mihtary  saviour 
on  two  distinct  occasions  of  British  power  in  the  south. 

In  the  meantime.  Lord  Macartney,  the  new  Governor  of 
Madras,  had  arrived  ;  and  overtures  for  peace  were  made  to 
Haidar  Ah.  They  were  rejected  ;  and  in  the  words  of  the 
Sultan's  reply  we  can  see  much  of  the  reason  for  his  bitter, 
but  not  unfounded,  enmity  against  the  British.  '  The  governors 
and  sirdars  who  enter  into  treaties  return  after  one  or  two 
years  to  Europe,'  he  wrote ;  '  and  their  acts  and  deeds 
become  of  no  effect ;  fresh  governors  and  sirdars  introduce 
new  considerations.  Prior  to  your  coming,  when  the  Governor 
and  Council  of  Madras  had  departed  from  their  treaty  of 
alliance  and  friendship,  I  sent  to  confer  with  them,  and  to 
ask  the  reason  for  such  a  breach  of  faith.  The  answer  given 
was,  that  they  who  made  those  conditions  had  gone  to  Europe. 
You  write  that  you  have  come  with  the  sanction  of  the  King 
and  the  Company  to  settle  all  matters,  which  gives  me  great 


132  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

happiness.  You,  sir,  are  a  man  of  wisdom,  and  comprehend 
all  things.  Whatever  you  may  judge  proper  and  best,  that 
you  will  do.  You  mention  that  troops  have  arrived,  and 
are  daily  arriving  from  Europe.  Of  this  I  have  no  doubt ; 
I  depend  on  the  favour  of  God  for  my  successes.'  The  in- 
competence of  the  Madras  administration,  the  lack  of  con- 
tinuity in  their  policy,  the  absence  indeed  of  any  real  policy 
at  all,  the  wretched  nature  of  the  excuses  put  forward  for 
breaking  their  word,  could  not  have  been  more  forcibly 
exposed. 

Nothing  could  bring  Haidar  Ali  to  trust  in  their  professions 
again,  for  he  had  no  reason  to  do  so  ;  and  he  continued  the 
war,  albeit  without  much  success,  till  his  death  in  1782. 
Even  then  it  did  not  end  ;  Tipii,  his  son  and  heir,  who  had 
already  helped  his  father  against  the  English,  continued  the 
contest,  assisted  by  fresh  supplies  from  France.  In  the  follow- 
ing year,  however,  peace  was  concluded  between  France  and 
England,  and  Tipu  was  forced  from  now  to  depend  upon  his 
own  resources ;  and  the  first  Mysore  War  quickly  drew  to  a 
close  in  1784,  a  mutual  restitution  of  all  conquests  being  the 
basis  of  peace. 

The  long  administration  of  Hastings  was  likewise  drawing 
to  a  close ;  and  the  last  few  months  during  which  he  held 
Eetirement  office  were  quiet  and  uneventful,  in  strange  con- 
of  Hastings,  trast  to  the  turmoil  of  the  previous  twelve  years. 
^"^    '  There  was  peace  in  India  ;    there  was  peace  in 

Europe.  Haidar  Ali  was  dead  ;  and  there  was  no  reason  to 
fear  any  fui'ther  attacks  from  the  French.  The  opposition 
that  now  confronted  Hastings  in  the  Council  at  Calcutta  was 
weak  and  ineffectual. 

At  length,  in  the  spring  of  1785,  he  sailed  from  India,  to 
the  accompaniment  of  many  marks  of  genuine  sorrow  from 
both  the  natives  and  the  English  :  expecting  to  receive  at 
home  the  honours  and  rewards  he  had  earned  by  such  splendid 
services,  and  to  retire  at  last  to  that  ancestral  estate  at 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  133 

Daylesford,  of  whose  acquisition  lie  had  dreamed  since  his 

childhood. 

Daylesford   indeed   he   acquired ;     but   instead   of   being 

honoured,  he  was  reviled  by  his  countrymen.     The  burning 

words  he  addressed  to  Parliament  when  summoned 

T   c      -,   1  ■  ■  11-  T        •       1-n         His  Reward, 

to  defend  his  actions  and  his  poncy  m  the  Jiast 

are  eloquent  of  the  bitterness  which  his  reception  caused 

him.     '  I  enlarged/  he  said,  '  and  gave  shape  and  consistency  ■ 

to  the  dominion  you  held  there ;  I  preserved  it ;  I  sent  forth 

its  armies  with  an  effectual  but  economical  hand,  through 

unknown  and  hostile  regions,  to  the  support  of  your  other 

possessions  ;    to  the  retrieval  of  one  from  degradation  and 

dishonour,  and  of  the  other  from  loss  and  subjection.     I 

maintained    the    wars    which    were    of   your  formation,  or 

that  of  others,  not  of  mine.  ...  I  gave  you  all :  and  you 

have  rewarded  me  with  confiscation,  disgrace,  and  a  life  of 

impeachment.' 


CHAPTER  III 

PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY  :  1772-98 1 

We  have  already  seen  that  Parliament  had,  at  various  times, 
intervened  in  the  afiairs  of  the  East  India  Company.  On 
a  strict  interpretation  of  the  letter  of  the  law,  the  House  of 
Commons  had  perhaps  no  constitutional  right  to  touch  on 
matters  of  this  nature.  The  associations  of  adventurers 
received  their  charters  from  the  Crown  alone.  Their  business 
lay  in  foreign  lands,  and  all  foreign  questions  were,  in  a 
pecuKar  degree,  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown.  Neither  the 
Tudors  nor  the  Stuarts  recognised  the  right  of  Parliament 
to  intervene  between  the  Crown  and  those  to  whom  it  had 

^  Authorities. — As  before,  with  the  additional  parliamentary  records 
of  the  time.  Especially  important  are  the  biographies  of  Clive,  Hastings, 
Cornwallis,  and  the  British  statesmen  of  the  period.  The  pamphlets  on 
Indian  affairs  are  again  useful.     Hunter  and  Mill  for  India  itself. 


134  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEESEAS 

granted  charters  :  nevertheless,  as  a  matter  of  policy,  or 
convenience,  or  sometimes  under  protest,  they  allowed  it. 

On  its  side  Parliament  had  no  doubt  of  its  right  of  inter- 
ference. A  charter  to  trade  conferred  a  monopoly  of  trade 
in  a  particular  district :  and  the  right  of  the  Crown  to  grant 
monopolies  was  one  on  which  the  Commons  kept  a  jealous 
eye.  A  charter  to  colonise  presupposed  the  right  of  the 
Crown  to  govern  the  colony  founded,  with  or  without  repre- 
sentative iastitutions  ;  in  nearly  every  case  it  stipulated  that 
the  Crown  should  receive  certain  definite  or  indefinite  sums 
in  return  for  the  privilege  and  protection,  nominal  or  real, 
which  went  with  the  charter.  The  extension  of  the  British 
dominions  overseas  to  any  large  extent  would  therefore  have 
enriched  the  Crown  considerably,  and  might  conceivably  have 
rendered  it  independent  of  the  home  ParUament :  hence  the 
interest  with  which  the  Commons  followed  the  question  of 
charters  and  monopolies. 

But  after  the  execution  of  Charles  i.  all  the  functions  of 
the  Crown  devolved  on  Parhament ;  and  at  the  restoration  of 
the  monarchy  it  was  impossible  for  things  to  revert  to  their 
previous  position.  From  that  time,  therefore,  the  right  of 
Parhament  to  intervene  in  the  affairs  of  the  chartered  and 
proprietary  companies  was  imquestioned  ;  even  more  evident 
was  its  right  to  revise  the  charters  by  which  the  Crown  granted 
privileges,  and  to  determine  for  how  long  a  period  those 
privileges  should  be  renewed. 

For  a  century  little  more  was  aimed  at.  The  imperial 
poHcy  of  Cromwell  had  thrown  the  glamour  of  imperiahsm 
over  many  of  the  acts  of  his  Parliaments  :  but  the  reaction 
came  immediately  after  his  death.  From  that  time  the 
debates  on  the  renewal  of  charters  turned  mainly  on  the 
amount  that  could  be  obtained  from  the  trading  companies 
for  the  relief  of  home  taxation  ;  a  sort  of  income-tax  levied 
in  advance  on  speculative  profits,  that  frequently  it  is  difficult 
to  distinguish  from  political  blackmail. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  135 

A  change  of  view  is  first  noticeable  in  the  time  of  the 
elder  Pitt.  The  Empire  of  India  was  now  falHng  into  the 
hands  of  England,  or  rather  into  the  hands  of  a  trading 
company  that  was  bound  to  use  its  position  primarily  for 
the  purpose  of  paying  dividends.  It  was  a  situation  un- 
paralleled in  the  history  of  the  world ;  although  endowed 
with  the  privileges  of  rule,  the  East  India  Company  did  not 
recognise  the  responsibihties  ;  nor  did  Parliament  for  some 
time  consider  it  necessary  to  take  any  steps  to  reform  the 
government  of  India. 

Gradually,  however,  the  feehng  grew  stronger  that  some 
more  efiicacious  system  of  control  was  necessary ;  and,  as 
might  be  expected,  Pitt,  the  great  imperial  statesman  of  the 
age,  was  the  first  to  discuss  the  matter.  In  1760  he  already 
thought  the  government  of  India  '  the  greatest  of  all  objects, 
according  to  my  view  of  great.'  He  meditated  deeply  over 
the  problem,  which  seemed  to  resolve  itself  into  the  question, 
whether  conquests  never  contemplated  by  a  charter  should 
be  deemed  an  essential  part  of  that  charter. 

Unfortunately,  the  mysterious  illness  which  for  a  time 
clouded  his  intellect  prevented  him  from  taking  any  action  ; 
but  when  the  renewal  of  the  Company's  charter  was  again 
debated  in  1773,  he  at  once  showed  his  interest.  In  the 
letter  on  the  subject  that  has  been  preserved,  he  puts  his 
view  of  the  case  clearly :  '  I  always  conceived  that  there  is 
in  substantial  justice  a  mixed  right  to  the  territorial  revenues 
between  the  State  and  the  Company  as  joint  captors ;  the 
State  equitably  entitled  to  the  larger  share  as  largest  con- 
tributor in  the  acquisition.  .  .  .  Nor  can  the  Company's 
share,  when  ascertained,  be  considered  as  private  property  : 
but  in  trust  for  the  pubUc  purpose  of  the  defence  of  India  and 
the  extension  of  trade  ;  never  in  any  case  to  be  portioned 
out  in  dividends  to  the  extinction  of  trade.'  At  this  time 
Burke  also  showed  his  interest  in  oriental  matters,  and  we 
have  already  seen  that  an  Act  to  regulate  affairs  in  India 


136  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

passed  through  ParKament  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  the 
directors  of  the  Company. 

But  the  great  storm  was  still  to  come,  a  storm  in  com- 
parison to  which  the  outcry  that  took  place  over  the  mis- 
government  which  Chve  was  sent  out  to  check  was  merely  a 
passing  thundercloud  on  a  summer  day. 

During  the  debates  on  the  India  Bill  the  name  of  Clive  had 
often  been  called  in  question,  and  the  part  he  had  taken  in 
Parliament  ^^^  government  of  India  was  referred  to  cen- 
and  Clive,  soriously  by  many  members.  On  him  was  visited 
all  the  wrath  which  had  gradually  been  accumu- 
lating against  the  whole  body  of  Anglo-Indians  for  several 
years.  The  nabobs,  as  the  latter  were  commonly  called  in 
England,  were  for  many  reasons  a  most  unpopular  class  of 
men.i  They  did  not  generally  come  of  high  family,  yet 
their  wealth  enabled  them  to  outshine  the  heads  of  old  county 
houses.  That  wealth  could  buy  them  everything  save  breed- 
ing and  respect ;  and  they  attempted  to  cover  the  deficiency, 
after  the  manner  of  the  upstart  all  the  world  over,  by  insolence. 
Accustomed  to  command  in  India,  they  assumed  an  over- 
bearing tone  at  home.  Their  demeanour  naturally  roused 
the  furious  resentment  of  all  those  particles  of  society  which 
they  had  displaced  ;  the  aspiring  snob  and  the  lofty  patrician 
were  for  once  alUed  in  detesting  a  common  foe.  And  these 
critics  were  joined  by  a  type  of  man  whom  modern  England 
to  her  cost  knows  too  well :  we  may  be  sure  that,  among  the 
enemies  of  the  nabobs,  there  were  not  lacldng  those  who  are 
meanly  envious  of  the  more  conspicuous  or  more  fortunate  in 
life  than  themselves,  and  whose  sole  dehght  seems  to  be  to 

1  As  were  also  their  sons  at  Oxford  University,  as  is  pointed  out  in 
Godley's  Oxford  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.  Many  writers  have  ascribed 
the  corruption  of  eighteenth-century  England  to  the  evil  influence  of  the 
wealthy  Anglo-Indians ;  but  it  must  be  lenaembered  that  the  nabobs 
were  after  all  a  limited  class,  and  that  the  manufacturers  at  home  were 
making  money  at  least  as  rapidly  at  this  time.  And  it  is  not  invariably 
true  that  wealth  is  put  to  bad  uses,  even  by  those  who  have  amassed  it 
more  quickly  than  their  less  fortunate  or  more  honest  neighbours. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  137 

traduce  and  to  besmirch  those  of  their  countrymen  who  have 
performed  great  pubHc  services  overseas. 

It  began  to  be  whispered  that  the  enormous  wealth  of  the 
Anglo-Indians  had  been  obtained  by  extortion  and  tyranny 
of  the  most  cruel  kind  :  and  the  nabobs  at  once  found  enrolled 
among  their  opponents  such  men  as  the  orator  Burke,  whose 
pure  soul  was  filled  with  a  passion  for  justice  to  the  weak, 
and  the  poet  Cowper,  whose  terrible  indictment  of  the  iniquity 
of  the  Enghsh  in  India  seems  directly  inspired  by  that  divine 
teacher  who  bade  men  be  merciful  to  the  poor  and  helpless. 

The  storm  centred  on  Chve  :  for  he  was  the  chief  of  all  the 
nabobs.  And  to  the  revilements  of  his  countrymen  at  home 
he  found  were  now  added  the  curses  of  those  whom  he  had 
balked  of  maldng  a  fortune  in  India.  His  good  and  his  evil 
acts  alike  told  against  him. 

Every  item  of  his  conduct  was  investigated  by  Parhament 
with  malignant  care :  *  I  am  sure,'  CHve  once  exclaimed,  '  if 
I  had  any  sore  places  about  me,  they  would  have  been  found  ; 
they  have  probed  me  to  the  bottom  ;  no  lenient  plasters  have 
been  appHed  to  heal,  no,  they  were  all  of  the  bhster  kind.' 
After  the  trial  he  said  bitterly,  and  with  truth,  that  he  had 
been  examined  hke  a  common  sheep-stealer ;  but  a  sense  of 
compassion  for  his  wrongs  had  already  turned  feeling  in  his 
favour.  When  the  direct  vote  of  censure  was  moved  in  the 
House,  the  previous  question  was  put  and  carried  ;  and  while 
his  excesses  were  not  glossed  over,  it  was  resolved  unani- 
mously '  that  Robert  Lord  Clive  did  at  the  same  time  render 
great  and  meritorious  services  to  his  country.' 

The  verdict  was  a  just  one  :  but  it  brought  no  peace  to 
CHve.  He  rusted  in  inactivity  ;  he,  whose  whole  manhood 
had  been  passed  in  conflict,  could  not  exist  in  Death  of 
luxurious  idleness.  The  strange  melancholy  of  ^^^^^'  i'^*- 
his  youth  again  began  to  prey  upon  him  :  and  a  few  months 
later  he  died  by  his  own  hand,  having  only  just  entered  his 
fiftieth  year.     The  ignorant  and  the  superstitious  at  once 


138  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

seized  on  the  event  as  a  sign  that  the  Devil  had  come  by  his 
own  ;  and  there  were  even  some  good  men  who  so  far  forgot 
their  religion  as  to  suggest  that  the  just  retribution  of  God 
had  overtaken  the  oppressor. 

The  war  of  pamphlets  attacking  and  defending  the  East 
India  Company  went  on  unceasingly.  The  rising  newspaper 
Indian  Con-  P^^^^  ^f  the  day  joined  in  the  debate.  The  evil 
troversy,  genius  of  Sir  Philip  Francis  returned  from  Asia  to 
add  acrimony  to  the  controversy.  Statesmen  were 
meanwhile  occupied  in  devising  schemes  of  better  government 
for  the  Indian  possessions  of  Britain.  The  mantle  of  Pitt  fell 
on  his  son.  The  loss  of  the  American  colonies  made  men  fear 
the  loss  of  the  Indian  Empire  ;  and  the  news  of  the  growing 
power  of  Haidar  Ali  gave  countenance  to  the  fear.  But 
until  the  charter  of  the  Company  was  near  expiry,  nothing 
could  be  done ;  and  Warren  Hastings  was  still  ruling  firmly 
and  wisely  in  the  East. 

At  length,  in  1780,  negotiations  were  begun  between  the 
directors  and  the  imperial  treasury  for  a  renewal  of  the 
monopoly.  There  were  many  difficulties  to  be  encountered ; 
and  the  two  old  questions  still  remained.  To  whom  did  the 
territory  in  the  East  belong,  and  what  amount  should  the 
Company  pay  for  its  exclusive  commercial  privileges  ? 

A  compromise  was  efEected,  however,  and  the  charter  was 
renewed  for  a  time ;  but,  while  everything  appeared  to  be 
going  smoothly,  various  complaints  arrived  from  the  British 
in  India  as  to  the  powers  possessed  by  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Judicature.  In  deference  to  these,  two  committees  were 
appointed,  which  afterwards  investigated  the  whole  state  of 
oriental  affairs ;  and  of  those  committees  the  most  conspicuous 
and  the  most  laborious  member  was  Edmund  Burke. 

Legislation  again  became  inevitable.  Feeling  raged  high. 
Dundas,  one  of  the  most  implacable  enemies  of  Warren 
Hastings,  demanded  his  recall ;  and  by  his  words  recommend- 
ing the  appointment  of  Cornwallis  as  Governor-General,  he 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  139 

insinuated  a  gross  slander  on  the  existing  holder  of  that 
office.  '  Here/  said  Dundas  of  his  nominee,  '  is  no  broken 
fortune  to  be  mended ;  no  beggarly  mushroom  kindred  to 
be  provided  for  ;  no  crew  of  hungry  followers  gaping  to  be 
gorged  !  ' 

But  the  Bill  which  he  put  forward  was  rightly  looked  upon 
as  too  extreme,  and  the  Ministry  itself  took  the  Indian  problem 
in  hand.  Fox  introduced  a  Bill,  which  was  unacceptable  to 
all  but  his  own  party  followers  ;  and  good  in  many  points 
though  it  was,  it  was  considered  solely  from  the  party  point 
of  view,  which  was  then  an  even  greater  curse  than  now  in 
British  politics. 

The  only  voice  which  raised  the  debates  to  a  higher  level 
was  that  of  Burke  ;  and  his  magnificent  eloquence,  which 
even  in  the  cold  silence  of  print  can  still  stir  the  The  idealism 
blood  more  than  a  century  afterwards,  was  then  of  Burke, 
employed  in  the  first  of  those  splendid  efforts  on  behalf  of 
our  Indian  fellow-subjects  which  are  perhaps  his  most  endur- 
ing title  to  fame.  His  speech  was,  he  said, '  The  fruit  of  much 
meditation,  the  result  of  the  observation  of  near  twenty  years. 
.  .  .  This  business  cannot  be  indifferent  to  our  fame.  It 
will  turn  out  matter  of  great  disgrace  or  great  glory  to  the 
whole  British  nation.  I  am  therefore  a  httle  concerned  to 
perceive  the  spirit  and  temper  in  which  the  debate  has  been 
all  along  pursued.  It  is  not  right,  it  is  not  worthy  of  us,  to 
depreciate  the  value,  to  degrade  the  majesty,  of  this  grave 
deliberation  of  poHcy  and  empire.  If  we  are  not  able  to 
devise  some  means  of  governing  India  well,  which  will  not 
of  necessity  become  the  means  of  governing  Great  Britain 
ill,  a  ground  is  laid  for  their  eternal  separation.'  A  lengthy 
indictment  of  the  East  India  Company  followed.  '  We  have 
sold,'  said  Burke,  '  the  blood  of  millions  of  men  for  the  base 
consideration  of  money.  Through  all  that  vast  extent  of 
country  there  is  not  a  man  who  eats  a  mouthful  of  rice  but 
by  permission  of  the  East  India  Company ;   yet  there  is  not 


140  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

a  single  prince,  state,  or  potentate,  great  or  small,  with  whom 
they  have  come  in  contact,  whom  they  have  not  sold.  There 
is  not  a  single  treaty  they  have  ever  made  which  they  have 
not  broken.  Every  rupee  of  profit  made  by  an  Englishman 
is  lost  for  ever  to  India.  England  has  erected  no  churches, 
no  hospitals,  no  palaces,  no  schools  ;  England  has  built  no 
bridges,  made  no  high  roads,  cut  no  navigations,  dug  out 
no  reservoirs.  Every  other  conqueror  has  left  some  monu- 
ment behind  him ;  were  we  to  be  driven  out  of  India  this 
day,  nothing  would  remain  to  tell  that  it  had  been  possessed 
during  the  inglorious  period  of  our  dominion  by  anything 
better  than  the  urang-utang  or  the  tiger.  .  .  ,  There  is  not 
left  one  man  of  property  and  substance,  not  one  landholder, 
not  one  banker,  not  one  merchant,  nor  one  even  of  those  who 
usually  perish  last,  the  ultimum  moriens  in  a  ruined  state, 
not  one  farmer  of  revenue.' 

The  speech  was  disfigured  by  many  gross  exaggerations  : 
the  Company's  rule  was  at  least  an  improvement  on  those 
degenerate  successors  of  the  Mughal  who  had  given  India 
over  to  anarchy  ;  and  Burke  made  no  mention  whatever  of 
the  administrative  reforms  of  Hastings.^ 

But  in  the  main  the  charges  were  true ;  and  the  import- 
ance of  Burke's  speech  is  that  it  laid  down  for  the  first  time, 
as  an  undeniable  proposition,  the  principle  that  it  was  a 
national  duty  to  see  that  the  natives  of  our  oriental  depend- 
ency were  not  oppressed  by  their  conquerors.  If  the  East 
India  Company,  in  short,  was  responsible  for  India,  England 
was  responsible  for  the  East  India  Company. 

In  this  speech,  too,  may  be  found  the  first  outline  of  that 

^  This  speech,  indeed,  showed  Burke  at  his  best ;  at  his  worst  he  was 
merely  an  abusive  fanatic.  As  Mr.  Sichel  points  out  in  his  brilliant 
Life  of  Sheridan,  Burke  was  rebuked  by  Pitt  in  1784  for  calling  Warren 
Hastings  '  Hainan  Dowlah,'  and  there  are  other  instances  of  his  passionate 
and  rhetorical  distortions  in  his  dealings  with  Indian  politics.  To  the 
end  of  his  life  he  refused  to  see  anything  but  evil  in  the  character  of  the 
great  Governor-General.  But  this  was  not  the  only  case  in  which  Burke 
showed  that  the  faculty  of  calm  and  impartial  judgment  was  utterlj'^  alien 
to  his  nature. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  141 

policy  of  social  and  industrial  improvement  in  the  East  which 
has  been  the  glory  of  our  dominion  there  during  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  world,  as  Burke  said  at  another  time, 
'  saw  one  of  the  races  of  the  North-West  cast  into  the  heart 
of  Asia  new  manners,  new  doctrines,  new  institutions ' ;  and 
though  England  had  as  yet  done  little  to  justify  her  conquests, 
the  beginnings  of  better  things  were  at  hand. 

The  Bill  introduced  by  Fox  was  rejected,  not  so  much  by 
the  opinion  of  Parliament,  as  by  the  direct  influence  of  the 
Idng ;  and  William  Pitt  the  younger,  the  new  The  India 
Prime  Minister,  brought  forward  a  somewhat  ^^^^^'  1783-4. 
similar  measure.  It  was  founded  more  on  compromise  than 
the  scheme  of  Fox,  who  had  not  understood  the  strength  of 
the  East  India  Company,  and  the  influence  its  directors 
possessed  in  Parhament :  but  its  principle  was  much  the 
same.  All  commercial  business  was  to  be  carried  on  as  before 
by  the  Company,  whose  chartered  rights  were  thus  untouched  ; 
but  the  whole  conduct  of  pohtical  matters  was  placed  under 
a  Board  of  Control,  which  was  formed  of  members  selected 
from  the  Privy  Council  of  Great  Britain.  The  Board  had 
power  to  approve  or  annul  the  acts  of  the  Company,  and  the 
President  of  the  Board  became  practically  a  new  Secretary 
of  State  in  Parliament  for  the  Indian  Department. 

In  this  way  the  government  of  India  fell  to  the  British 
Parliament ;  the  commerce  of  India  was  preserved  to  its 
original  owners.  So  great  was  the  power  of  Pitt  as  Premier 
that  the  Bill  passed  without  serious  opposition ;  and  the 
system  of  double  government  thus  instituted  lasted,  with 
one  important  change,  until  after  the  Mutiny  of  1857. 

It  was  anomalous,  but  on  the  whole  it  answered  well ;  and 
the  seventy-three  years  during  which  it  continued  form  the 
second  great  division  of  British  Indian  polity.  In  the  first, 
the  Company  had  been  supreme.  In  the  second,  the  Com- 
pany and  the  Crown  had  joint  control.  In  the  third,  the 
Company  ceased  to  exist,  and  the  Crown  alone  was  responsible. 


U2  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OATRSEAS 

Diirmg  the  course  of  the  protracted  debates  on  Lidian 
affairs  many  of  the  acts  of  Warren  Hastings  had  been  severely 
The  Trial  condemned  by  enemies  both  pubhc  and  private, 
of  Hastings,  His  conduct  had  been  censured  by  a  vote  of  the 
1788-95.  House  of  Conmions.  Dundas  had  attacked  him 
with  the  virulence  of  ■which  he  was  a  master.  Francis  had 
done  all  in  his  power  to  pay  back  old  scores.  Burke  had 
declaimed  in  tones  of  thunder  against  the  tyranny  and  extor- 
tion of  the  Govemor-Greneral.  But  imperial  affairs  were  too 
critical  to  permit  of  the  recall  of  Hastings  at  that  moment. 
At  length,  however,  in  1785  he  returned. 

It  caimot  be  denied  there  was  a  strong,  and  to  some  extent 
a  well-founded  feeling  of  indignation  against  him.  But  he 
had  also  a  great  body  of  fervent  admirers.  The  general 
pubUc,  who  had  no  particular  reason  for  taking  sides  on 
Indian  questions,  seem  to  have  recognised  that  he  had  com- 
mitted many  wrongs  ;  but  against  this  they  set  off,  and  with 
justice,  the  fact  that  he  had  upheld  the  English  name  in  the 
East  during  a  time  of  storm  and  stress. 

In  all  probability  no  steps  to  impeach  him  would  have  been 
taken,  had  not  his  agent  in  ParUament,  the  inept  JMajor  Scott, 
challenged  Burke  to  bring  forward  a  motion  of  censure  that 
had  already  been  threatened.  Thus  attacked,  Burke  had 
no  option  but  to  justify  himself.  He  rephed,  and  founded 
his  indictment  chiefly  on  the  Ptohilla  War,  the  Giait  Sinh 
affair,  and  the  ill-treatment  of  the  Begams  of  Oudh  ;  actions 
which  he  characterised,  with  even  more  than  his  customary 
vehemence  of  language,  as  '  the  danmed  and  damnable  pro- 
ceedings of  a  judge  in  hell."  On  the  first  charge  Hastings 
was  absolved  by  the  House  of  Commons,  chiefly  on  the  ground 
that  his  conduct  therein  had  already  been  censured ;  but  he 
was  impeached  on  the  others. 

The  trial  began  early  in  the  next  year,  1788.  Against 
Hastings  were  ranged  the  greatest  orators  of  the  age  ;  Burke, 
Sheridan,  and  Fox  vied  with  each  other  in  depicting  the 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  143 

enormities  of  which  the  great  Governor-General  had  been 
guilty.  But  they  knew  httle  of  legal  procedure  ;  and  their 
speeches,  which  were  full  of  the  splendid  rhetoric  of  which 
each  of  those  great  speakers  were  masters,  were  equally  full 
of  the  most  reckless  exaggerations. 

The  lawyers,  and  perhaps  the  balance  of  the  arguments, 
were  on  the  side  of  Warren  Hastings ;  but  what  was  even 
more  on  his  side  was  the  extraordinary  duration  of  the  trial. 
The  hearing  of  the  charges  against  him  extended  over  seyen 
years  ;  and  even  then  it  was  only  by  the  prosecutors  with- 
drawing many  of  the  counts  that  the  end  was  reached.  The 
pubhc  interest  had  been  enormous  at  the  beginning  of  the 
proceedings  ;  but  long  before  the  trial  had  run  half  its  course 
the  world  was  weary  of  it.^  Sympathy  began  to  be  given 
to  Hastings,  for  justice  seemed  to  degenerate  into  persecu- 
tion, as  the  dilatory  proceedings  dragged  on  indefinitely. 
At  last,  in  1795,  the  decision  was  pronounced.  Acquittal 
on  aU  the  charges  was  a  foregone  conclusion. 

There  must  have  been  many  at  the  trial  who  drew  a  parallel 
between  Clive  and  Hastings.  Both  had  gone  out  as  lads 
to  India,  in  much  the  same  circumstances.  Both  had  been 
in  the  same  employment,  and  had  risen  from  the  lowest  to 
the  highest  positions.  Both  held  a  position  of  immense 
power,  and  served  their  country  well.  Both  committed  great 
faults,  and  both  had  their  conduct  tried  by  enemies  on  their 
return.     Both  were  honourably  acquitted. 

But  there  the  resemblance  ends.  Clive  was  wayward  and 
passionate,  and  a  prey  to  suicidal  mania.  Hastings  was 
calm  and  thoughtful,  and  able  to  keep  steadily  in  the  same 
path  for  many  years  together.  At  his  acquittal  he  was 
already  older  than  Clive  had  been  at  his  death  ;  yet  Hastings 

'  And  so  apparently  was  one  of  the  prosecutors.  Mr.  Sicliel  relates 
that :  '  Even  at  the  end  of  17>S8,  so  wearied  was  Sheridan  of  the  inipetuoua 
tempers  of  Burke  that  he  told  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire  in  jest  how 
much  he  wished  that  Warren  Hastings  would  run  away,  and  Burke 
after  him.' 


144  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

lived  in  tranquillity  another  twenty-three  years,  on  those 
historic  lands  of  his  ancestors  at  Daylesford  which  he  had 
so  long  coveted,  where  he  indulged  the  quiet  pursuits  of  an 
English  country  gentleman,  and  endeavoured,  not  very 
successfully,  to  cultivate  at  home  some  of  the  products  native 
to  the  tropical  regions  of  the  earth. 

The  likeness  and  the  contrast  between  the  work  of  the  two 
men  in  India  is  striking.  The  career  of  Chve  may  be  com- 
pared to  the  course  of  a  mountain  torrent,  which  carries  all 
before  it  in  one  impetuous  rush  ;  that  of  Hastings  to  the 
steadily  flowing  river  of  the  lowlands,  less  picturesque  perhaps, 
but  with  far  more  real  power  and  force  :  and  as  the  torrent 
is  the  beginning  of  the  river,  so  were  the  conquests  of  Chve 
the  foundation  of  the  administrative  and  general  poHcy  of 
Hastings.  The  one  was  the  complement  of  the  other  ;  alone 
neither  would  have  been  permanent. 

With  the  close  of  the  great  trial  the  interest  that  had  been 
excited  in  Indian  affairs  throughout  England  died  away,  as 
cornwauis,  the  storm  of  the  French  Revolution  and  the 
1786-93.  Napoleonic  wars  distracted  the  attention  of 
Europe.  Asiatic  affairs,  in  fact,  remained  a  thing  apart  from 
the  general  politics  of  the  western  world  ;  and  only  those 
who  were  directly  concerned  with  the  East  knew  much  of 
the  advance  of  our  empire  there.  But,  despite  the  terrible 
burden  of  the  contest  with  France,  there  was  no  cessation 
for  any  length  of  time  of  the  efforts  to  consolidate  and  extend 
the  English  power  in  India. 

The  immediate  successor  of  Warren  Hastings  in  India  was 
Macpherson,  a  man  who  had  risen  from  the  humble  position 
of  purser  on  a  mercantile  vessel  to  be  adviser  to  the  Nawab 
of  Arcot,  and  eventually  a  senior  Member  of  Council.  His 
rule  was  merely  intermediate,  and  was  marked  by  no  events 
of  any  importance. 

He  was  followed,  in  September  1786,  by  Lord  Cornwalhs, 
a  statesman  who  proved  himself  worthy  to  rank  among  the 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  145 

greatest  of  those  whom  England  has  given  to  India.  As 
commander  of  the  British  troops  in  America  during  the 
Imperial  Civil  War  a  year  or  two  before,  he  had  been  unsuc- 
cessful ;  as  Governor-General  of  India,  however,  he  more 
than  retrieved  the  reputation  which  he  lost  in  the  capitula- 
tion at  Yorktown.^ 

At  first,  indeed,  he  was  miwilling  to  accept  the  post  offered 
to  him.  He  saw  the  virulent  attacks  that  were  being  made 
on  Warren  Hastings  ;  he  had  himself  not  been  held  free  from 
blame  by  popular  opinion  for  the  crowning  disaster  of  the 
American  War  ;  and  he  shrank,  as  many  a  sensitive  man 
would  have  shrunk  in  a  similar  position,  from  the  possibility 
of  a  second  failure  and  its  inevitable  consequences. 

He  was  in  no  mood,  he  said,  to  risk  being  '  disgraced  to 
all  eternity '  in  attempting  inefEectually  '  to  fight  nabob 
princes,  his  own  Council,  and  the  supreme  Government,  what- 
ever it  may  be  ' ;  and  he  refused  the  post.  It  was  some 
time  before  the  entreaties  of  the  Enghsh  Ministers  prevailed  : 
but  at  length,  '  much  against  his  will  and  with  grief  of  heart,' 
as  he  confessed,  he  accepted  the  supreme  control  of  Indian 
affairs  and  sailed  for  the  East. 

His  arrival  found  Bengal  in  a  disturbed  and  restless  state. 
Macpherson  had  already  described  the  time  as  '  a  season  of 
peculiar  difficulty,  when  the  close  of  a  ruinous  unrest  in 
war,  and  the  relaxed  habits  of  the  service,  had  iQ^ia. 
left  all  the  armies  in  arrear,  and  the  presidencies  in  disorder.' 
According  to  the  much  overdrawn  accounts  that  had  been 
sent  home,  the  public  distress  had  never  been  so  pressing  as 
at  that  moment ;  and  certainly  Macpherson  himself  did 
nothing  to  relieve  it.  Indeed,  even  his  short  period  of  rule 
had  been  far  from  satisfactory.  Many  of  the  old  abuses  had 
begun  to  appear  again  ;  and  his  successor  took  occasion  to 
remark,  in  an  early  despatch,  that  the  British  name  in  India 

1  For  the  campaigns  of  Cornwallis  in  America,  see  vol.  iii.  bk.  ix, 
chap.  iii. 

VOL.  II.  K 


146  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

had  now  '  no  authority,  and  the  grossest  frauds  were  daily 
committed  before  their  faces  ;  their  whole  conduct,  and  all 
their  pretensions  to  economy,  except  in  the  reduction  of 
salaries,  were  a  scene  of  delusion.' 

When  Cornwallis  landed,  therefore,  in  a  country  to  whose 
problems  he  was  altogether  a  stranger,  it  was  not  to  take  up 
the  reins  of  a  settled  government ;  and  his  hands  were  still 
further  tied  by  the  instructions  he  had  received  before  leaving 
England. 

The  parliamentary  Board  of  Control  and  the  directors  of 
the  East  India  Company  had  both  assumed  that  the  collec- 
The  Bengal  tion  and  the  amount  of  the  revenue  were  the  most 
Revenue.  important  questions  in  Indian  administration.  In 
a  sense  perhaps  they  were  right,  looking  at  India  from  the 
point  of  view  that  was  held  by  everybody  at  that  day  except 
Edmund  Burke  ;  and  most  certainly  they  did  not  err  in  dis- 
covering that  the  revenue  stood  on  a  very  unsatisfactory 
footing.  All  over  the  country  payments  were  in  arrears  ; 
in  some  parts  they  were  as  much  as  four  years  behind  ; 
in  many  others  the  sums  collected  had  fallen  short  of 
expectations. 

It  had  therefore  been  determined  to  place  the  Indian  revenue 
on  a  permanent  basis.  The  first  assessment  was  to  be  con- 
fined to  a  period  of  ten  years  ;  but  after  that  time  a  lasting 
settlement  was  to  be  arrived  at.  With  the  duty  of  intro- 
ducing this  new  system  was  Cornwalhs  charged  ;  and  he  was 
to  be  guided,  not  by  '  abstract  theories  drawn  from  other 
countries,  or  applicable  to  a  different  state  of  things,  but  a 
consideration  of  the  existing  manners  and  usages  of  the  people.' 

It  was  easy  to  give  directions  from  London  ;  but  the  new 
Governor-General  had  not  been  long  in  Calcutta  before  he 
found  it  impossible  to  carry  them  out.  It  had  been  taken 
for  granted  that  the  English  in  India  were  already  in  posses- 
sion of  sufficient  information  as  to  the  economic  condition  of 
the  provinces  they  ruled,  to  fix  the  assessment  almost  imme- 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  147 

diately  at  an  equitable  rate.  So  far,  however,  was  this  from 
being  the  case,  that  nobody  could  say  definitely  whether  the 
country  could  pay  more,  or  whether  it  was  already  taxed  too 
highly.  AU  that  was  certainly  known  were  the  amounts 
that  had  previously  been  collected. 

In  this  difiiculty  CornwaUis  took  the  only  course  that  was 
fair  both  to  the  people  and  their  rulers  ;  but  it  was  a  course 
upon  which  a  lesser  man  would  have  refused  to  embark.  He 
disregarded  the  orders  he  had  received,  and  sent  home  a 
despatch  giving  his  reasons  for  doing  so.  Annual  settle- 
ments of  the  revenue  were  introduced  for  the  time  being ; 
in  the  meantime  all  the  information  that  could  be  gathered 
as  to  the  resources  of  India  was  obtained  and  placed  before 
him. 

The  result  was  seen  in  the  despatch  sent  home  by  Corn- 
waUis on  2nd  August  1789.  After  three  years  of  exhaustive 
investigation,  he  was  now  ready  with  a  scheme  The  Per- 
for  the  permanent  settlement  of  the  Bengal  ^^y^^* 
revenue.  The  assessment  of  the  country  was  1789. 
fixed  in  perpetuity.  It  was  still  left  in  the  hands  of  the  zamin- 
dari,  or  collectors,  to  receive  the  revenue  from  the  ryots,  or 
cultivators,  as  before,  and  to  pay  it  over  to  the  Government ; 
but  the  rights  of  the  former  were  elevated  into  something 
very  near  those  of  a  landlord,  while  the  latter  became  in  effect 
little  more  than  tenants.  Cornwalhs  appears  to  have  had 
in  mind,  as  was  inevitable  in  a  man  of  aristocratic  upbring- 
ing, the  system  of  land  tenure  prevailing  in  England :  but 
great  as  this  fault  was — and  we  shall  see  in  a  subsequent 
chapter  that  his  scheme  eventually  failed — the  permanent 
settlement  was  at  least  a  step  forward  from  the  old  hap- 
hazard method  of  revenue  collection.  It  introduced,  what 
had  hitherto  always  been  lacking,  an  element  of  certainty  in 
Indian  finance  ;  it  standardised  a  principle,  where  before  was 
merely  chance,  and  very  often  extortion. 

Further  than  this,  it  paved  the  way  for  another  urgent 


148  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

reform.  The  functions  of  collector  of  revenue  and  president 
of  the  local  courts  of  law  had  previously  pertained  to  the  same 
official :  and  the  efiect  of  this  was  to  unite  the  advocate  and 
the  judge  in  one  person.  A  more  direct  incentive  to  tyranny- 
can  hardly  be  conceived ;  and  although  Cornwalhs  in  his 
original  instructions  was  commanded  to  preserve  the  system, 
he  abolished  it  after  a  lengthy  trial  had  convinced  him  of  its 
injustice.  The  complete  criminal  jurisdiction  was  given  to 
Europeans,  and  the  collector  of  revenue  had  from  this  time 
no  connection  with  either  judicature  or  pohce. 

But  in  spite  of  the  care  which  had  been  taken  in  the  com- 
pilation of  the  revenue  statistics,  they  proved  very  faulty  in 
the  actual  work  of  administration.  Under  the  new  scheme, 
whatever  advantages  the  Government  and  the  collectors  of 
revenue  derived  from  it,  the  cultivators  suffered.  Within 
twenty  years  the  position  of  the  latter  was  described  as 
desperate,  and  it  was  seen  that  the  permanent  settlement 
would  have  to  be  revised  throughout.  Unfortunately  this  was 
deferred  from  year  to  year,  and  the  rights  of  the  cultivators 
were  not  secured  to  them  until  after  the  Mutiny  in  1859. 

Whether  Cornwallis  would  have  discovered  and  remedied 
the  defects  of  his  own  system,  had  the  opportunity  been  vouch- 
The  Second  ^^^^^  ^^^>  remains  a  question.  But  he,  like 
Mysore  War,  Warren  Hastings,  was  interrupted  in  his  schemes 
1791-2.  ^£  reform  by  a  call  to  arms.     Haidar  Ah  was  dead  ; 

Tipu,  his  son,  reigned  in  his  stead.  And  Tipu  was  still  burn- 
ing with  resentment  at  the  defeats  that  had  been  infhcted 
on  his  father,  and  the  heavy  losses  which  the  late  war  had 
brought  on  the  kingdom  of  Mysore.  In  his  way  he  governed 
well,  and  his  people  were  prosperous  and  contented  during 
at  least  the  earHer  part  of  his  reign,  thus  furnishing  a  humih- 
ating  contrast  to  the  misery  of  the  neighbouring  British  pro- 
vince of  the  Karnatic.  But  Tipu  was  above  all  else  ambitious 
to  extend  his  territory,  and  to  exterminate  the  alien  rulers 
of  India. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  149 

To  accomplish  the  latter  end,  he  was  quite  prepared  to  see 
other  aHens  in  their  place.  He  invited  the  terrible  Afghans 
to  descend  from  their  fastnesses  upon  the  north,  and  to  co- 
operate with  him  in  driving  out  the  English  ;  and  though  his 
project  fortunately  came  to  nothing,  he  remained  hopeful 
tiU  the  last  that  the  French  would  yet  appear  in  India  as 
conquerors,  and  assist  him  against  those  enemies  with  whom 
his  father  had  grappled  in  vain,  and  with  whom  the  major 
part  of  his  own  life  was  to  be  spent  in  warring. 

For  some  years  after  the  close  of  the  first  Mysore  War,  in 
1784,  there  seemed  no  Hkelihood,  however,  that  the  treaty 
between  Tipu  and  the  EngHsh  would  be  broken.  The  Sultan 
was  indeed  a  turbulent  neighbour,  who  was  continually  inter- 
fering in  the  affairs  of  the  smaller  states  of  Southern  India, 
over  which  the  English  claimed  a  certain  amount  of  control  : 
but  the  opinion  generally  prevailed  that  he  would  do  nothing 
actively  hostile  without  French  aid ;  and  that  aid  he  could 
not  hope  to  obtain,  since  France  and  England  were  at  peace. 

But  in  the  very  year,  1790,  in  which  Cornwallis  expressed 
this  opinion,  and  even  suggested  to  Tipii  that  commissioners 
should  be  appointed  on  either  side  to  settle  all  questions  in 
dispute,  the  latter  attacked  Travancore,  a  state  under  British 
protection,  without  previous  provocation. 

The  Governor-General  at  once  made  known  his  intention 
of  exacting  full  reparation  for  the  outrage ;  and  treaties  of 
ofiensive  alliance  were  concluded  by  him  with  Haidarabad 
and  those  recent  foes  of  the  British,  the  Maratha  princes. 

Tipu,  alarmed  by  the  formidable  enemies  his  wanton  deed 
had  provoked,  attempted  to  excuse  the  invasion  of  Travan- 
core as  an  unauthorised  irruption  of  his  army,  and  suggested 
that  the  EngHsh  should  appoint  one  or  two  trusty  persons 
to  negotiate.  But  CornwaUis  was  not  to  be  deceived.  It 
would  have  compromised  the  dignity  of  the  British  name  to 
have  sent  ambassadors  to  Tipu  ;  it  was  his  place  to  send  them 
to  us. 


150  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

But  altliougli  the  Sultan  of  Mysore  subsequently  offered 
to  do  so,  in  order  to  '  remove  the  dust  by  which  the  upright 
mind  of  the  General  had  been  obscured  ' ;  and  although  the 
ever-pacific  presidency  of  Madras  believed  that  he  '  had  no 
intention  to  break  with  the  Company/  Cornwallis  saw  more 
clearly  that  to  delay  the  war  would  merely  give  Tipii  the 
opportunity  of  strengthening  his  army,  without  lessening 
his  enmity.  1  Madras  was  severely  censured  by  the  Governor- 
General  for  disobeying  his  command  to  prepare  for  war  : 
and  in  the  following  year,  1791,  Cornwallis  himself  took  the 
field,  with  a  display  of  pomp  and  power,  designed  to  impress 
the  natives,  such  as  neither  CHve  nor  Coote  had  ever  been 
able  to  show. 

Tipii  had  appealed  to  France  for  aid,  and  even  waited  at 
Pondicherri  for  the  troops  which  he  imagined  must  eventually 
come.  But  his  request  and  his  presents  had  both  been  laughed 
at  in  the  court  of  Louis  xvi,  ;  and  the  Sultan  of  Mysore  turned 
back  disappointed  to  his  own  dominions  to  fight  his  battle 
alone. 

His  early  operations  against  the  British  were,  however, 
successful.  The  Madras  army,  which  had  marched  against 
him,  did  nothing ;  and  the  activity  of  the  Governor  of  Bombay, 
General  Abercromby,  who  conquered  the  Malabar  coast  with 
ease,  did  not  compensate  for  the  failure  of  the  former. 

At  length  Cornwallis  took  the  supreme  direction  of  the 

1  I  have  an  uneasy  feeling  that  if  the  ghost  of  the  unfortunate  Tipfi 
were  suddenly  to  confront  me  at  my  desk,  he  might  be  able  to  prove  that 
this  war  was  fastened  on  him  against  his  will  by  Cornwallis.  The  Sultan 
of  Mysore  certainly  did  his  best  to  conciliate  the  Governor-General  when 
he  saw  that  matters  M'ere  serious  ;  and  it  is  at  least  possible  that  Corn- 
wallis seized  a  favourable  opportunity  to  injure  one  whom  he  knew  would 
never  be  a  friend  of  the  British,  but  whom  it  did  not  suit  at  the  moment 
to  become  a  declared  enemy.  But  this  question,  like  many  other  dis- 
puted points  in  history,  can  never  be  definitely  settled  ;  for  nearly  all 
our  evidence  comes  from  the  victors,  and  the  only  decisive  testimony 
would  be  the  conscience  of  the  defeated  Sultan.  It  is  a  legal  maxim  that 
one  cannot  libel  the  dead — a  maxim  that  seems  invented  for  the  express 
benefit  of  historians — but  if  one  could  call  up  spirits  from  the  vasty  deep, 
and  examine  them  as  to  their  actions  when  they  were  alive,  a  good  deal 
that  is  now  accepted  as  the  truth  would  have  to  be  thrown  overboard. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  151 

war.  He  arrived  without  opposition  at  Bangalore,  aided  less 
by  his  own  qualities  as  a  commander  than  by  Tipu's  remiss- 
ness as  a  foe  ;  for  the  latter  had  suddenly  bethought  him- 
self of  his  seraglio  in  that  city,  and  returned  with  all  speed 
to  rescue  his  womenfolk. 

The  Sultan  had  thereby  made  a  bad  blunder,  and  Bangalore 
was  soon  in  the  hands  of  the  British  troops.  But  from  that 
moment  the  fortune  of  the  campaign  was  reversed.  Corn- 
wallis  failed  to  effect  a  junction  with  the  army  of  Haidarabad  ; 
and  although  Tipu  declined  a  proffered  battle,  and  the 
British  general  prepared  for  the  siege  of  Seringapatam,  the 
capital  of  Mysore,  he  was  suddenly  checked. 

There  was  an  utter  failure  of  the  British  equipment,  due 
to  lack  of  foresight ;  the  cattle  and  provisions  were  lost,  and 
the  invading  army  was  compelled  to  retreat  in  serious  danger. 
It  fell  in  with  the  Marathas,  but  for  the  time  these  allies  were 
of  little  use,  requiring  a  loan  before  they  would  consent  to 
fight :  and  at  length  Cornwallis  was  forced  to  open  negotia- 
tions with  Tipu. 

But  the  Sultan,  though  willing  enough  to  treat,  was  now 
flushed  with  victory,  and  suggested  that  the  British  army 
should  return  to  its  own  territory  before  he  could  think  of 
peace.  The  assumption  of  superiority  was  repudiated  by 
Cornwallis ;  and,  fresh  supplies  having  arrived,  the  combined 
armies  of  the  British  and  Marathas  marched  on  Seringapatam. 

The  district  between  Bangalore  and  the  capital  of  Mysore 
was  of  an  extraordinarily  difficult  nature  for  an  army  to 
traverse.  The  country  was  one  of  hills  and  precipices.  A 
dense  jungle  stretched  the  whole  way,  which  was  aggravated 
by  the  artificial  thickets  of  bamboos  that  had  been  planted 
in  various  places.  At  intervals  there  were  forts,  which  were 
manned  by  the  Sultan's  most  devoted  servants.  '  I  have 
eaten  Tipu's  salt  for  twenty  years,'  cried  the  captain  of  one 
of  these  when  summoned  to  surrender,  '  and  will  not  give 
up  my  post  till  you  first  take  Seringapatam.' 


152  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEKSEAS 

Almost  every  fort  had  to  be  bombarded  mitil  a  breach  was 
made  in  its  walls,  and  then  taken  by  assault ;  at  least  one 
stronghold  resisted  three  days'  continual  cannonade.  And 
when  one  fort  was  stormed  and  captured,  a  path  had  to  be 
cut  in  the  jungle,  over  rocks  and  through  the  undergrowth, 
before  the  heavy  artillery  could  be  dragged  forward  another 
mile  or  two  towards  the  next.  The  labour  was  immense ; 
but,  by  the  beginning  of  February  1792,  the  British  lines  of 
communication  were  perfect,  and  CornwalHs  appeared  before 
Seringapatam. 

The  capital  of  Mysore,  in  which  Tipii  had  entrenched  him- 
self, lies  on  a  large  island  in  the  middle  of  a  river.  A  network 
of  bamboo  and  a  prickly  hedge  formed  a  useful  rampart 
against  attack,  even  after  the  river  had  been  crossed ;  and 
there  was,  in  addition,  a  strong  fortress  to  which  the  defenders 
could  withdraw  if  closely  pressed. 

Tipii  possessed  some  five  thousand  cavalry  and  between 
forty  and  fifty  thousand  infantry  ;  and  though  his  personal 
operations  against  the  Enghsh  had  hitherto  been  generally 
feeble,  he  did  not  beheve  that  they  would  be  able  to  capture 
Seringapatam.  It  was  his  aim  to  weary  them  with  a  long 
and  fruitless  siege,  until  the  coming  of  the  monsoon  should 
force  them  to  withdraw ;  and  since  this  stratagem  had  been 
successfully  employed  by  his  father  in  an  earher  campaign 
some  years  before,  Tipii,  whose  qualities  as  a  mihtary 
commander  were  certainly  less  brilliant  than  those  of  Haidar 
Ali,  thought  he  could  not  do  better  than  imitate  a  plan  whose 
value  had  already  been  proved. 

But  CornwaUis  was  not  deterred  by  the  formidable  appear- 
ance of  Seringapatam.  He  made  a  sudden  and  daring  attack 
on  the  night  of  6th  February  ;  and  although  the  native  allies 
of  the  British  were  aghast  at  the  boldness  of  the  plan,  and 
though  Tipii's  troops  fought  with  great  bravery,  they  could 
not  resist  the  onslaught.  By  four  o'clock  the  next  after- 
noon the  city  was  captured,  and  siege  was  then  immedi- 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  153 

ately  laid  to  the  fortress.  A  firm  resistance  was  still  made 
by  the  Sultan ;  but  it  was  hopeless  to  attempt  to  hold  out, 
and,  on  the  24th,  peace  was  concluded. 

The  Mysorean  soldiery  continued  to  fire  for  a  time,  in  order 
to  appear  to  be  the  last  to  give  up  the  fight ;  but  this  piece 
of  barbarian  bravado  was  of  no  effect.  Cornwalhs  could 
despise  such  empty  bombast,  and  he  issued  an  order  to  his 
men  to  show  moderation  in  the  hour  of  victory,  and  to  '  refrain 
from  the  use  of  any  kind  of  insulting  expression  towards  an 
enemy  now  subdued  and  humbled.' 

The  command  was  obeyed ;  but  it  was  more  difficult  to 
draw  up  a  treaty  which,  while  satisfying  the  Marathas  and 
the  Nizam  of  Haidarabad,  should  secure  to  the  British  the 
just  fruits  of  victory,  and  yet  leave  Tipu  a  reasonable  amount 
of  territory  as  Sultan  of  Mysore. 

There  was  no  intention  of  deposing  him,  for,  once  his  power 
was  checked,  and  he  was  forced  to  acknowledge  the  might 
of  the  ruling  race,  Cornwallis  thought  Tipii  would  be  a  useful' 
factor  in  preserving  that  balance  of  power  among  the  native 
states  which  was  still  the  basis  of  the  East  India  Company's 
policy.  The  events  of  the  next  few  years  proved  that  nothing 
could  quell  Tipti's  enmity  but  death  ;  but  at  the  time  the 
treaty  of  1792  seemed  sufficiently  drastic  to  prevent  him 
from  causing  further  trouble. 

He  was  forced  to  cede  half  his  territories  among  the  allies,  to 
give  up  two  of  his  eldest  sons  to  the  British  as  hostages,  and 
to  pay  the  enormous  indemnity  of  three  crores  and  thirty  lakhs 
of  rupees.  The  British  share  of  the  dominions  thus  acquired 
was  the  province  of  Mysore  on  the  Karnatic  frontier,  the 
district  surrounding  Dindigul,  and  the  Malabar  coast. 

A  year  after  the  close  of  the  second  Mysore  War  Corn- 
wallis returned  to  England,  and   was  succeeded    sir  John 
as  Governor-General  bv  Sir  John  Shore,  who  had    shore, 

1  •  «    '  •  1793-8 

been    mstrumental    in    drawing   up   the   greater 

part    of    the    permanent   settlement   of   Bengal.    A   high- 


154  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

minded  and  blameless  statesman,  Shore's  attention  was 
directed  mainly  to  the  internal  administration  of  the  British 
Indian  provinces.  He  seldom  interfered  in  the  affairs  of 
the  independent  states  ;  and  the  five  years  of  his  rule  being 
generally  quiet  and  uneventful,  he  was  able  to  continue 
undisturbed  the  work  of  reform  which  he  had  initiated 
under  the  guidance  of  Cornwallis. 

When  Shore  retired  in  1798,  a  little  more  than  a  quarter  of 
a  century  had  elapsed  since  the  Regulating  Act  had  been 
The  Results  passed,  and  more  than  ten  years  since  the  govern- 
mentary  nient  of  India  had  been  divided  between  the  East 
Government.  India  Company  and  the  British  Parliament.  It 
was  therefore  by  that  time  possible  to  see  in  some  degree  how 
the  new  system  of  divided  ministerial  and  corporative  control 
would  work.  That  there  had  been  some  disadvantages  in 
the  dual  authority  was  but  natural.  Cornwallis  found  him- 
self hampered  at  times  by  the  restrictions  which  had  been 
placed  on  the  contraction  of  alliances  and  the  signature  of 
treaties  with  the  native  powers  ;  and  it  would  have  been  a 
serious  difficulty  had  he  not  cut  the  Gordian  knot  by  occa- 
sionally disregarding  the  law  on  this  point.  In  the  troubled 
years  which  were  to  come,  when  Wellesley  was  at  the  head 
of  affairs,  it  was  often  impossible  to  wait  for  the  decision  of 
the  British  Cabinet  Ministers  on  every  question  of  internal 
Indian  politics,  especially  since  neither  the  Parliamentary 
Secretary  of  State  for  India  nor  the  directors  of  the  East  India 
Company  in  London  could  be  so  well  informed  of  the  neces- 
sities of  the  situation  as  the  man  on  the  spot ;  and,  in  addition, 
the  time  required  for  communicating  between  London  and 
Calcutta  was  so  long  that  the  position  might  have  altered 
entirely  before  the  decision  of  the  authorities  in  London  could 
have  reached  the  Governor-General  in  Calcutta.  Wellesley, 
therefore,  in  this  matter  followed  the  action  of  Cornwallis. 

Another  disadvantage  was  the  infusion  of  British  party 
politics  into  the  discussion  of  Indian  affairs  in  Parliament ; 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  155 

but  this  was  not  a  new  evil.  The  examination  of  CUve  and 
the  impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings  had  both  been  dictated 
at  least  as  much  by  the  claims  of  party  as  by  consideration 
for  the  welfare  of  the  people  of  India.  The  discussions  and 
voting  on  the  India  BiUs  had  been  exclusively  on  party  hnes. 
And  during  the  second  Mysore  War,  Fox  had  found  it  con- 
sistent with  patriotism  to  indulge  in  an  attack  of  wild  rhetoric 
on  CornwaUis  for  his  alliance  with  the  Marathas  and  the  Nizam 
of  Haidarabad ;  it  was,  said  Fox,  a  plundering  confederacy 
for  the  purpose  of  extirpating  a  lawful  prince,  the  expedient 
of  a  wicked  government  in  a  barbarous  age  ;  the  progress  of 
civiHsation  had  rendered  men  ashamed  of  such  alliances  in 
Europe,  but  Britain  still  resorted  to  them  in  Asia.  His  oratory, 
however,  feU  on  deaf  ears  ;  the  war  was  popular  in  England, 
and  the  Government  carried  the  day  against  the  opposition.^ 
While  these  drawbacks  to  the  new  system  were  obvious, 
they  were  held  in  check  by  the  general  good  sense  of  the 
nation,  and,  in  part,  by  the  indifference  it  was  about  to  show 
towards  Indian  affairs  ;  and  they  were  more  than  offset  by 
the  advantages  which  parHamentary  control  had  brought. 
The  reforms  of  CornwaUis  and  Shore,  though  far  from  perfect, 
were  at  least  steps  towards  better  things  ;  and  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  they  would  have  been  introduced  had 
British  India  remained  solely  under  Company  rule.  Warren 
Hastings  was  as  anxious  to  improve  the  administration  of 
Bengal  as  CornwaUis  ;   but  he  was  prevented  by  the  insistent 

1  That  party  spirit  should  run  high  within  the  walls  of  the  House  of 
Commons  when  Indian  afiFairs  were  discussed  will  not  appear  wonderful 
to  those  who  remember  the  political  factions  of  the  times  ;  but  it  is 
curious  to  find  that  the  people  outside,  who  condemned  Fox's  India  Bill, 
shouted  '  No  Grand  Mogul,  no  India  tyrant ! '  at  the  offending  Whigs. 
They  may  not  have  understood  exactly  who  the  Grand  Mogul  was,  or 
where  he  reigned  ;  but  most  intelligent  men  had  a  roughly  accurate  idea 
of  recent  events  in  India.  And  although  one  of  the  characters  in  She 
Stoops  to  Conquer  remarks  that  '  I  no  more  trouble  my  head  about 
Heyder  Ally  or  Ally  Cawn  than  about  Alh'  Croaker,'  the  politics  and 
finances  of  the  East  India  Company,  both  in  Leadenhall  Street  and  in 
India,  were  one  of  the  recognised  topics  of  general  conversation  in  Eng- 
land, as  any  of  the  memoirs  of  the  later  eighteenth  century  will  attest. 


156  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

demand  of  the  Company's  directors  for  money,  while  Corn- 
wallis  was,  to  a  certain  extent,  able  to  disregard  their  wishes. 
Again,  the  directors  would  have  objected,  and,  in  fact,  they 
did  object,  to  the  policy  of  expansion  which  was  about  to 
be  initiated  by  Wellesley  ;  under  parHamentary  control,  how- 
ever, their  complaints  were  useless. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  FOEWAKD  POLICY  :    1798-1805  ^ 

The  first  thirteen  years  after  the  return  of  Warren  Hastings 
to  England  were,  in  a  military  sense,  generally  uneventful. 
The  next  seven  were  filled  with  continual  wars.  The  whole 
period  of  twenty  years  may  be  summed  up  as  that  in 
which  the  two  distinct  types  of  pohcy  which  have  since 
characterised  the  British  dominion  in  Asia  first  became 
strongly  marked.     Both  have  been  rightly  called  the  forward 

^  Authorities. — Mill  and  Hunter.  The  former's  Hintory  of  British 
India  closes  with  the  year  1805.  In  spite  of  its  cold,  unsympathetic  tone, 
and  its  prejudice  against  the  East  India  Company  and  British  policy  in 
India,  it  is  a  valuable  work.  But  it  is  a  thousand  pities  that  Hunter  did 
not  live  to  complete  his  great  history,  which  would  have  superseded  all 
others.  The  original  authorities  for  this  period  are  the  indispensable 
despatches  of  Wellesley  and  Wellington,  and  the  technical  military  works 
in  which  the  history  of  the  wars  is  told.  Napoleon's  scheme  of  striking  at 
India  through  Egypt  is  thoroughly  investigated  by  Thiers ;  the  import- 
ance of  the  idea,  and  its  effect  in  shaping  our  Asiatic  policy,  has  perhaps 
hardly  been  sufificieutly  remarked  by  English  historians.  The  Indian  tracts 
and  pamphlets  that  were  published  in  England  become  from  now  for 
some  time  of  small  value  :  the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings  had  exhausted 
popular  interest  at  home  ;  there  were  no  obvious  reasons  for  attacking  the 
Company  on  political  grounds  any  more,  since  Parliament  had  practically 
taken  over  the  administration  ;  and,  above  all,  \\'hile  England  was  occu- 
pied with  a  life  and  death  struggle  in  Europe,  she  could  pay  little  atten- 
tion to  Asia.  In  consequence,  we  find  that  the  discussion  of  Indian 
affairs  began  to  be  the  province  of  experts,  and  from  about  this  time 
Eastern  problems  were  generally  lifted  al)ove  the  spliere  of  party.  The 
publications  of  the  nineteenth  century  dealing  with  India  were  generally 
utilitarian  and  technical,  and  although  they  were  controversial,  they  were 
so  in  quite  a  different  sense  from  those  of  the  eighteenth. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  157 

policy  by  those  responsible  for  them.  Each  has  been  neces- 
sary at  various  times,  and  it  says  much  for  the  credit  of  our 
Indian  administration  that  the  men  in  authority  have  gene- 
rally chosen  the  path  of  conquest  or  the  path  of  peace  correctly, 
as  the  occasion  of  their  age  demanded. 

The  forward  poHcy,  from  the  military  standpoint,  has  con- 
sisted in  the  extension  of  the  British  power  in  India  by 
war  and  conquest.  That  pohcy  has  enlarged  our  frontiers 
tiU  they  have  reached  the  Himalayas  in  the  north  and  have 
stretched  to  the  coast  all  round  the  vast  peninsula.  It  has 
been  the  source  of  a  thousand  briUiant  exploits  by  our  armies  ; 
it  has  brought  fame  and  reputation  to  many  a  rising  soldier. 
And  sometimes,  but  not  often,  it  has  been  checked  by  a 
terrible  disaster. 

The  forward  pohcy  of  the  civilian  service  has  had  no  such 
picturesque  adjuncts  to  its  fame.  It  has  been  concerned 
\^dth  the  details  of  administrative  work,  with  the  reform  of 
Indian  law,  with  the  settlement  of  the  land  system.  It  has 
had  to  inaugurate  a  general  scheme  of  education,  to  stop 
popular  abuses  that  had  the  custom  of  centuries  of  ignorance 
at  their  back.  It  has  had  to  foresee  the  wants  of  modern 
India  by  encouraging  industry,  by  constructing  irrigation 
works,  canals,  and  railways,  by  enlarging  the  forest  area 
of  the  country.  And  before  it  could  do  this  it  had  first  to 
create  itself,  and  to  evolve  that  tradition  of  unobtrusive, 
self-sacrificing,  and  often  inadequately  paid  labour  which 
has  made  the  British  Indian  Civil  Service  without  a  parallel 
in  the  world,  but  which  has  allowed  so  few  of  its  members 
to  found  a  name  for  themselves. 

By  a  combination  of  the  two  poUcies  the  British  have 
governed  India.  Our  presence  in  Asia  rests  in  the  last  resort 
upon  the  sword ;  the  justification  of  our  presence  there  is 
the  civil  administration.  To  depend  upon  force  alone  would 
be  to  own  ourselves  without  an  ideal  of  government  save  that 
of  force  ;  to  depend  upon  civihan  rule  alone  would  be  to  trust 


158  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

to  a  belief  in  human  gratitude  that  would  show  ourselves 
deluded  by  the  mere  foohshness  of  doctrinaires  run  mad. 

It  was  the  miUtary  policy  which  inevitably  came  first,  with 
the  victories  of  Clive.  But  he,  the  first  of  our  generals  in 
India,  was  forced  also  to  undertake  civil  administration.  As 
we  have  seen,  his  system  failed ;  and  the  reforms  of  Warren 
Hastings  and  British  statesmen  at  home  succeeded  to  his 
efforts.  But  the  attention  of  Hastings  was  distracted  by 
external  politics  and  the  finances  of  the  East  India  Company. 
The  critical  situation  in  Europe  and  the  Imperial  Civil  War 
in  America  prevented  the  British  Parliament  from  giving 
much  time  to  oriental  afiairs.  To  Hastings,  however,  suc- 
ceeded Cornwallis,  the  first  EngUsh  nobleman  who  was 
appointed  Governor  of  India  ;  and  under  the  seven  years 
of  his  rule  the  civil  policy  of  reform  was  carried  far.  If  com- 
mercial profit  was  still  the  basis  of  British  rule  in  India,  it 
was  no  longer  the  sole  object.  If  an  active  Governor-General, 
or  in  later  times  an  enterprising  Viceroy,  could  vary  the 
administration  to  suit  his  own  views,  he  was  no  longer  an 
autocrat  in  the  sense  that  the  two  great  men  to  whom  we 
owe  the  solid  foundation  of  our  oriental  empire  had  been. 

British  India  had  grown  beyond  the  strength  of  one  ruler. 
The  machine  of  the  Indian  imperial  system  had  begun  ;  and 
that  system,  as  nearly  impersonal  as  any  human  institution 
can  be,  although  it  had  not  reached  the  automatic  accuracy 
of  the  years  after  the  Mutiny,  was  already  rendering  India 
independent  of  changes  in  the  governing  staff,  from  highest 
to  lowest  official.^ 

1  Compare  the  important  speech  in  which  Lord  Morley,  then  Mr.  John 
Morley,  introduced  the  Indian  Budget  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  6th 
June  1907.  'For  the  last  few  years,'  he  said,  'the  doctrine  of  adminis- 
trative efficiency  has  been  pressed  too  hard.  The  wheels  of  the  huge 
machine  have  been  driven  too  fast.  Our  administration  would  be  a  great 
deal  more  popular  if  it  was  a  trifle  less  efficient,  a  trifle  more  elastic.  .  .  . 
There  are  highly  experienced  gentlemen  who  say  that  a  little  of  the  loose- 
ness of  earlier  days  is  better  fitted,  than  the  regular  system  of  latter  days, 
to  keep  and  win  personal  influence,  ami  that  we  are  in  danger  of  creating 
a  pure  bureaiicracy.     Honourable,  faithful,  and  industrious,  the  servants 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  159 

But  Cornwallis  had  been  forced  to  leave  the  reform  of  the 
Indian  land  and  judicial  system  by  the  iiTuption  of  Tipii  in 
the  south  ;  and  the  last  period  of  his  governor-  ,j,^^  Danger 
ship  was  dedicated  to  arms.  The  five  years  of  in  India, 
Sir  John  Shore's  administration  were  uneventful ; 
but  at  their  close  the  necessity  for  action  was  imperative. 
The  situation  was  again  somewhat  similar  to  what  it  had 
been  in  Olive's  day.  To  have  risked  a  few  years  of  uncertain 
peace  for  a  possible  increase  of  trade  would  have  meant  that 
the  British  would,  sooner  or  later,  have  been  driven  from 
India. 

For  the  power  of  France  had  again  grown  in  Asia.  Expelled 
a  second  time  from  the  petty  remains  of  their  possessions  in 
India  during  the  Imperial  Civil  War,  the  French  had  still  not 
given  up  the  hope  of  ultimate  victory.  The  vast  schemes 
of  Dupleix  were  again  being  considered  by  Buonaparte  ;  and 
Buonaparte  was  about  to  entrench  himself  in  Egypt,  the 
while  he  fixed  his  eyes  longingly  on  India.  One  campaign 
by  that  mighty  genius  of  war  would  perhaps  have  brought 
both  the  British  and  the  natives  of  India  to  his  feet. 

Nor  was  the  way  unprepared.  The  French  still  possessed 
Mauritius  and  Bourbon,  both  convenient  supply  stations  on 
the  maritime  road  to  Asia.  French  regiments  formed  the 
bodyguard  of  the  Nizam  of  Haidarabad  ;  and  they  were  in 
reality  his  masters.  The  soldiers  of  Sindhia,  the  military 
head  of  the  Maratha  confederacy,  were  led  by  French  adven- 
turers. The  Sultan  of  Mysore  was  still  coquetting  with 
France  ;  he  carried  on  a  correspondence  with  the  Directorate 
at  Paris,  and  imitated  in  passable  fashion  the  jargon  of  hbert}'- 
that  was  talked  under  the  First  EepubHc.    A  tree  of  freedom 

of  the  State  in  India  are  and  will  be,  but  if  the  present  system  ia  per- 
sisted in,  there  is  a  risk  of  its  becoming  rather  mechanical,  perhaps  I 
might  even  say  rather  soulless.  .  .  .  All  evidence  tends  to  show  that  we 
are  making  administration  less  personal.'  My  own  words  in  the  text 
were  written  some  two  years  before  this  speech  w;.s  delivered  ;  had  the 
position  been  reversed,  I  should  have  been  tempted  to  rob  the  most 
literary  of  our  orators  of  these  graceful  but  weighty  sentences. 


160  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

was  planted  in  his  dominions  ;  he,  an  Asiatic  despot,  enrolled 
himself  in  a  French  club  as  Citizen  Tipu,  And  British  rule 
had  not  yet  proved  such  an  unmixed  blessing  that  India 
would  not  have  contemplated  a  change  of  masters  without 
excessive  regret.  Certainly  none  but  ourselves  would  have 
struck  a  blow  in  our  defence. 

All  this  was  known  to  the  younger  Pitt.  He  knew,  too, 
that  the  best  protection  of  British  interests  in  the  Orient  lay 
weUesiey,  in  ^  series  of  brilliant  conquests  ;  and  he  deter- 
1798-1805.  mined  to  strike  at  once.  He  selected  his  man 
with  the  unerring  sagacity  which  seems  to  have  been  heredi- 
tary in  his  family  ;  and  Richard  Colley,  Baron  Wellesley, 
became  Governor-General  of  India  in  1798.  The  son  of  an 
Irish  nobleman,  he  had  already  held  various  official  positions 
at  home  ;  but  he  was  marked  out  for  a  larger  sphere  than 
England  offered.  '  You  are  dying  of  the  cramp,'  Addington 
had  once  observed  to  him,  when  no  opening  appeared  for  his 
abilities  in  Europe  :  but  Pitt  had  singled  him.  out  for  pro- 
motion ;  and  on  the  retirement  of  Sir  John  Shore,  Wellesley 
sailed  for  Calcutta. 

Of  cold  but  determined  temperament,  neither  persuasion 
nor  abuse  could  change  him  from  any  course  that  he  thought 
desirable.  Somewhat  lacking  in  human  affection,  he  seems 
to  have  given  aU  the  love  of  which  he  was  capable  to  the  place 
where  he  had  been  educated  ;  and  as  Clive's  thoughts  in  his 
years  of  exile  had  turned  to  Manchester,  as  Hastings  had 
longed  forDaylesford,  so  did  Wellesley,  when  Governor-General 
of  British  India,  ever  dream  of  his  old  school  on  the  banks  of 
the  Thames.  So  strong,  indeed,  was  the  sentiment  which  he 
felt  for  it,  that  even  sixty  years  of  strenuous  life  in  Asia  and 
in  England  could  not  abate  his  affection  ;  and  at  his  death, 
in  1842,  he  directed  that  he  should  be  buried  in  the  same  Eton 
College  chapel  in  which  he  had  worshipped  as  a  schoolboy. 

He  came  out  to  India  with  the  settled  design  of  pursuing 
the  forward  policy.     He  did  not  believe  in  the  system  of  non- 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  161 

intervention  which  had  been  followed  by  Cornwallis  and 
Shore  ;  in  common  with  Pitt,  he  was  convinced  that  it  was 
necessary  to  make  the  native  rulers  throughout  He  inaugur- 
the  whole  peninsula  dependent  on,  and  subor-  porward 
dinate  to,  the  British.  The  history  of  the  ensuing  Policy, 
seven  years  shows  how  thoroughly  that  policy  was  carried 
out ;  and  a  sentence  in  one  of  his  later  despatches  proves  with 
what  contempt  he  looked  upon  the  remonstrances  of  the 
directors  of  the  East  India  Company,  when  they  complained, 
as  they  continually  did,  that  commerce  was  no  longer  the 
paramount  interest  of  the  English  in  the  East.  '  No  addi- 
tional outrage,'  he  wrote,  '  which  can  issue  from  the  most 
loathsome  den  of  the  India  House  will  accelerate  my  depar- 
ture when  the  public  safety  shall  appear  to  require  my  aid.' 

His  first  proposals  for  expansion  were  opposed  at  Calcutta, 
Madras,  and  London.  Although  the  directors  of  the  Com- 
pany had  received  the  news  of  the  French  invasion  of  Egypt, 
they  still  clung  to  the  hope  of  peace.  They  wrote  urging 
'  the  utmost  discretion,  that  we  may  not  be  involved  in  war 
in  India  without  the  most  inevitable  necessity.'  It  is  easy  to 
conceive  that,  according  to  them,  the  necessity  would  never 
have  arisen  until  their  Asiatic  territories  had  been  lost.^ 

The  English  colony  at  Madras,  as  usual,  protested  against 
movement  of  any  sort ;  and  the  merchants  of  Calcutta  de- 
clared that  '  we  never  before  were  so  powerful  and  unassail- 
able.' Wellesley,  however,  was  resolute.  '  Not  discouraged 
by  these  suggestions  and  representations,'  he  wrote, '  I  insisted 
on  the  immediate  execution  of  my  orders  ' :  and  those  orders 
were  for  the  assembly  of  the  army.  His  first  step  was  to 
induce  the  Nizam  of  Haidarabad  to  disband  his  French 
regiments  ;  and  when  British  troops  were  substituted  for 
them  as  tb*'  bodyguard  of  the  ruler  of  the  Deccan,  there  was 

^  A  parallel  case  may  be  found  in  the  reluctance  of  the  Dutch  West 
India  Company  to  recognise  that  its  American  colonies  were  threatened 
by  the  English.     See  vol.  i.  bk.  iii.  chap.  iii. 

VOL.  II.  -  L 


162  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

no  difficulty  in  concluding  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  him.  The 
potential  enmity  of  the  most  powerful  Mohammedan  State 
of  Southern  India  being  thus  averted,  Wellesley  turned  his 
attention  to  Mysore. 

The  campaign  of  CornwalUs  had  seriously  diminished  the 
power  of  Tipu.     But  the  same  cause  had  increased  his  enmity  ; 
Third      ^^^  there  is  something  pathetic  in  his  belief  that 
Mysore  War,  the  aid  of  God  and  the  assistance  of  the  French 
^^^^'  would  in  the  end  dehver  him  from  the  English 

conquerors.  His  reliance  on  the  former  stood  him  in  ill  stead, 
for  it  led  him  again  to  trust  in  the  strength  of  the  fortress  of 
Seringapatam  ;  his  appeals  to  the  latter  for  troops  and  money 
were  the  direct  cause  of  Wellesley 's  immediate  intervention. 
The  Governor-General  would  have  been  satisfied  had  Tipu 
promised  to  permit  a  permanent  British  resident  at  his 
capital,  and  to  dismiss  every  Frenchman  from  his  service 
and  dominions  ;  but  when  a  demand  to  that  effect  was  made, 
the  Sultan  of  Mysore  retm-ned  no  answer.  And  therefore, 
'  under  all  the  circumstances,'  said  Wellesley,  '  an  immediate 
attack  upon  Tipu,  for  the  purpose  of  frustrating  the  execution 
of  his  unprovoked  and  unwarrantable  projects  of  ambition 
and  revenge,  appeared  to  me  to  be  demanded  by  the  soundest 
maxims  both  of  justice  and  policy.' 

The  British  army  marched  from  Madras ;  Tipu  became 
alarmed,  and  he  complained,  apparently  not  unreasonably, 
that  since  he  had  broken  no  treaty,  there  was  no  justice  in 
the  invasion. 

Such  arguments  had  no  weight  with  Wellesley.  It  was 
enough  for  him  that  the  French  were  in  Egypt,  and  that  Tipii 
would  have  welcomed  them  in  India.  The  British  army 
pressed  forward  ;  and,  aided  by  the  troops  from  Haidarabad, 
it  was  more  than  thirty  thousand  strong.  On  th^  other  side, 
Mysore  was  threatened  by  the  regiments  of  the  Bombay 
presidency. 
Tipu  attacked  both  in  turn,  but  inefiectively  ;  and,  having 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  163 

failed,  he  shut  himself  up  in  Seringapatam.  Again  his  capital 
was  surrounded  by  the  British  ;  again  it  was  stormed  ;  again 
it  v/as  taken. 

But  Tipu  had  fallen  in  the  defence,  and  when  search  was 
made  for  him,  only  his  body  was  found,  still  warm,  hidden 
among  a  pile  of  dead.  The  princes  of  the  Sultan's  family 
were  generously  treated  by  the  victors,  but  they  were  not 
restored  to  the  throne.  The  danger  from  the  dynasty  of 
Haidar  Ali  had  been  too  great  to  risk  the  chance  of  another 
conflict :  and  the  close  of  the  third  Mysore  War  ended  for 
ever  the  political  importance  of  that  State. 

The  fall  of  Seringapatam  brought  with  it  the  utter  collapse 
of  the  government  of  Mysore ;  the  whole  country  passed 
into  British  hands,  and  the  younger  brother  of  Wellesley, 
the  future  Duke  of  Wellington,  was  left  there  to  restore  order. 
At  first,  indeed,  everything  was  in  confusion.  We  had  found 
to  our  cost  that  the  people  were  generally  loyal  to  Tipii  in 
the  provinces  that  had  been  ceded  to  England  after  the  war 
of  1792  ;  in  the  interior  of  Mysore  they  were  still  more  devoted 
to  their  late  master.  And  in  the  out-lpng  districts  there 
were  small  chiefs  who  had  held  semi-independent  sway,  even 
in  the  days  of  Haidar 's  greatness  ;  these,  too,  were  not  dis- 
posed to  welcome  the  iron  hand  of  European  dominion.  Each 
was  ready  to  conspire  with  his  neighbours  or  with  the  people  ; 
each  had  to  be  separately  subdued. 

It  is  indeed  in  a  strange  character  that  we  see  Welhngton 
during  his  two  years  as  administrator  of  Mysore.  The  re- 
organisation of  the  government  was  in  itself  a  Wellington 
difficult  process.  He  was  perplexed  by  the  in  Mysore, 
rumours  of  plots,  the  gossip  of  the  bazaars,  and  ^'^^^"^^^'i- 
the  utterly  untrustworthy  character  of  the  information  volun- 
teered by  the  natives ;  he  was  harassed  by  the  disputes  in 
his  own  army,  and  the  continual  problem  of  provisioning  so 
large  a  force  ;  and  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  restore  confidence 
among  the  people.     For  some  time  they  disliked  selling  their 


164  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

produce ;  only  when  they  found  they  were  paid  punctually 
and  honestly  did  disaffection  diminish.  Other  dangers  were 
the  tigers  which  roamed  through  the  land,  hardly  checked  in 
the  anarchy  that  prevailed  after  the  fall  of  Seringapatam, 
and  the  bands  of  plunderers  who  ravaged  the  countryside 
and,  at  times,  the  city  itself.  For  such  pests,  WeUington's 
plan  was  simple  :  the  former  were  shot,  the  latter  hanged  ; 
and  after  a  few  months  there  was  comparative  security. 

He  now  turned  his  attention  to  the  improvement  of  the 
lines  of  communication  within  the  state :  roads  were  con- 
structed through  the  jungle,  and  the  possibihty  of  a  surprise 
attack  was  thus  lessened.  Each  province  was  visited  in  turn, 
and  its  administration  reorganised ;  questions  of  revenue 
had  to  be  inquired  into,  and  the  policy  of  imposing  taxation 
on  such  articles  as  tobacco  and  the  betel-nut  considered. 
Finally,  the  future  defence  of  Mysore  had  to  be  decided  ;  and 
Wellington  arranged  that  the  State  should  be  patrolled  regu- 
larly by  squadrons  of  soldiers,  preferring  this  system  to  keep- 
ing garrisons  in  fortresses  in  various  places,  where,  as  he 
observed,  they  would  have  never  been  able  to  put  down  a 
rebellion,  for  they  could  not  venture  to  leave  their  own 
base. 

Mysore  was  thus  finally  subjugated  by  the  British  :  but 
its  ultimate  destiny  was  a  matter  for  serious  debate.  To 
have  annexed  it  openly  would  have  excited  the  jealousy  of 
both  the  Marathas  and  the  Nizam  of  the  Deccan  ;  and  though 
the  latter  was  hardly  in  a  position  to  become  a  dangerous 
foe,  the  shadows  of  approaching  war  with  the  former  were 
already  looming  over  British  India. 

On  the  other  hand,  to  have  given  the  Marathas,  as  our  alhes 
for  the  moment,  too  extensive  a  territory,  would  have  enlarged 
their  power,  and  made  them  a  still  more  formidable  foe  in 
the  future  ;  this  question,  however,  was  settled  by  their  rejec- 
tion of  the  share  that  was  offered  them.  Wellesley  accord- 
ingly resolved  to  set  up  on  the  throne  a  Raja  of  the  older 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  165 

family  whom  Haidar  Ali  had  deposed  :  but,  '  recollecting 
the  inconveniences  and  embarrassments  under  the  double 
government,  in  Oudh,  the  Karnatic,  and  Tanjore,  I  resolved,' 
he  said,  '  to  reserve  to  the  Company  the  most  extensive  and 
indisputable  powers/  Even  then  the  advisers  of  the  Governor- 
General  made  immediate  protests  at  his  action ;  it  was 
objected,  and  with  reason,  that  '  a  child  dragged  forth  from 
oblivion,  to  be  placed  on  a  throne  on  which  his  ancestors  for 
three  generations  had  not  sat  for  more  than  half  a  century,' 
would  be  laughed  at  by  the  Mysoreans,  and  of  little  use  to 
the  British.  The  Governor-General,  however,  adhered  to  his 
resolution,  and  the  historic  rulers  of  Mysore  were  restored. 

But  Mysore  still  acknowledged  the  absolute  suzerainty  of 
the  East  India  Company  :  and  the  whole  of  India  south  of 
Haidarabad  and  the  Maratha  dominions  was  now  und^ 
British  control.  The  first  step  in  consolidating  our  oriental 
possessions  was  thus  complete  ;  the  question  of  reforming 
the  administration  and  bettering  the  condition  of  the  people 
was  left  to  other  hands. 

WelUngton,  indeed,  was  able  to  say  of  Mysore  before  he 
left  it  in  1801  that  '  the  country  was  becoming  a  garden  ' ; 
but  the  older  territories  of  the  East  India  Com-    jjiisery  in 
pany  in  the  south  remained  in  a  deplorable  state,    southern 
The  Karnatic  had  been  poverty-stricken  for  years.     °  ^^' 
In  1790  the  Nawab  of  Arcot  had  complained  that  he  was 
'  compelled  to  draw  the  very  blood  of  his  ryots  to  pay  his 
present  heavy  instalment  to  the  Company  ' ;    and  although 
Cornwalhs  had  shortly  afterwards  annexed  his  dominions, 
assuring  Parliament  and  the  Company's  directors  that  '  the 
strongest   considerations   of  humanity,   justice,    and   pubhc 
necessity '  had  impelled  him  to  this  step,  there  had  been  no 
apparent  improvement.^ 

^  When  Lord  Minto  arrived  in  the  south  of  India  a  few  years  later,  the 
poverty  of  the  place  at  once  moved  his  pity.  '  Thousands  of  country 
people,'  he  wrote,  '  have  swarmed  into  Madras  in  quest  of  bread,  thou- 
sands are  employed  on  public  works,  to  thousands  wiio  can't  work  rice  is 


166  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

And  the  forward  policy  which  Wellesley  had  initiated  of 
set  purpose  did  not  allow  him  to  pause  in  the  work  of  con- 
quest. Even  before  Mysore  was  thoroughly  subdued,  he 
was  preparing  to  reduce  the  Marathas ;  and  Wellington 
left  Seringapatam  only  to  march  against  Poona. 

The  Maratha  confederation  had  not  altered  its  character 
in  the  twenty  years  which  had  elapsed  since  the  treaty  between 
them  and  the  British  in  1782,  but  the  power  of  the  Peshwa 
had  declined  until  he  was  absolutely  under  the  control  of 
the  turbulent  chiefs  who  owed  him  nominal  allegiance.  Those 
chiefs  had  continued  to  be  a  disturbing  element  in  India. 
They  had  made  predatory  raids  on  their  neighbours.  The 
Mughal,  the  titular  Emperor  who  still  reigned  at  Delhi,  was 
in  the  power  of  one.  Another  had  encouraged  Tipu  in  his 
^ti-British  sentiments.  A  third  had  endeavoured  to  induce 
the  Nizam  of  Haidarabad  to  repudiate  the  treaty  he  had  con- 
cluded with  Wellesley.  All,  it  is  true,  professed  themselves 
willing  and  anxious  to  maintain  good  relations  with  the  East 
India  Company.  But  this  was  not  enough  for  the  Governor- 
General,  for  he  saw  that  their  acts  belied  their  words. 

A  great  part  of  the  south  of  India  was  now  British. 
Haidarabad  was  under  British  protection  ;  for  by  the  treaty 
The  Treaty  ^^  ^^00  the  Nizam  had  agreed  to  admit  no  other 
with  Haidar-  Europeans  save  the  British  in  his  dominions,  to 
'  ■  have  a  certain  number  of  British  troops  per- 
manently stationed  in  Haidarabad  for  the  protection  of  that 
country,  to  set  aside  the  revenue  of  certain  districts  to  pay 
for  their  upkeep,  and  to  submit  all  disputes  that  might  arise 
with  neighbouring  states  to  British  arbitration.  It  is  obvious 
that  this  reduced  the  Nizam  from  the  rank  of  a  sovereign 
power  practically  to  a  vassal ;  and  it  was  this  system  which 
Wellesley  endeavoured  to  introduce  with  the  Marathas.     Were 

distributed  gratis  daily.  It  is  common  to  see  famished  wretches  expire 
after  the  first  mouthful  of  food,  which  their  stomachs  could  no  longer 
receive  in  safety.' 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  167 

he  to  succeed  in  his  design,  and  to  bring  to  a  successful  con- 
clusion the  far  less  difficult  negotiations  of  the  same  character 
that  were  going  on  with  the  ruler  of  Oudh,  it  would  mean  that 
almost  the  whole  of  India,  with  the  exception  of  parts  of 
Rajputana,  the  Punjab,  and  Kashmir,  would  be  consohdated 
under  British  authority. 

The  grand  ideal  of  Pitt  would  then  be  accomplished.  Every 
native  state  ;n  the  peninsula  would  be  subordinate  to  the 
British  ;  no  other  European  nation  could  attempt  The  Principle 
to  obtain  a  iooting  there  ;  no  native  ruler  would  paramountcy 
be  able  to  indulge  in  war  with  his  rivals  ;  and  the  in  K^aT 
Governor-Geieral,  appointed  in  London  by  Parliament  and 
the  East  India  Company,  would  be  supreme  from  the  Ganges 
to  Cape  Comorin.  In  the  words  of  one  of  Wellesley's 
despatches,  '  Every  principle  of  true  poHcy  demands  that 
no  efiort  should  be  omitted  by  the  British  Government  to 
establish  a  permanent  foundation  of  general  tranquilHty  in 
India,  by  securing  to  every  state  the  free  enjoyment  of  its  just 
rights  and  ndependence,  and  by  frustrating  every  project 
calculated  to  disturb  the  possessions,  or  to  violate  the  rights, 
of  the  established  powers  of  iHindustan  and  the  Deccan.' 

It  is  eas7  to  stigmatise  the  forward  policy  of  Wellesley  as 
animated  by  the  mere  lust  of  power  and  conquest,  as  spring- 
ing solely  from  fear  of  the  French,  as  aiming  simply  at 
the  conversion  of  India  into  a  huge  monopoly  for  Britain.^ 
Potmt  as  these  reasons  undoubtedly  were,  they  were  not  aU, 

L  is  true  that  the  commercial  instinct  had  much  to  do  with 
the  forward  policy  ;  there  are  few  things  with  which  it  has 
noi.  It  is  hkewise  true  that  jealousy  of  the  intrusion  of  other 
Eixopean  nations  was  a  strong  motive  power :  but  this  was 
net  unreasonable,  seeing  how  considerably  French  influence 

No  doubt  whatever  exists  as  to  the  reality  of  Napoleon's  designs  on 
Inlia.  General  Decaen  was  sent  out  from  France,  and  he  was  to  be 
'  cuietly  reinforced  by  troops  in  French  pay  sent  out  by  every  French, 
Sianish,  or  Dutch  ship  going  to  India,  so  as  to  avoid  attracting  notice,' 
uitil  the  time  came  for  action. 


168  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

had  grown  a  second  time  in  the  East.  It  is  equally  true  that 
Wellesley's  despatches  to  England  always  emphasised  the 
civilising  effect  of  British  interference,  and  shoTved  things 
rather  in  the  light  in  which  the  English  people  wished  to  see 
them  than  as  they  actually  were.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  same  applied,  in  slightly  difierert  fashion,  to 
Cornwallis  ;  and  as  those  despatches  had  to  be  presented  to 
Parliament,  the  apparently  incurable  hypocrisy  and  the  un- 
limited faculty  for  complacent  self-deception,  which  seems 
to  have  become  engrained  in  the  British  character  since  the 
puritan  era,  forced  the  Governors-General,  if  nol  to  disavow 
their  purpose  of  expanding  the  empire,  at  least  to  cloak  it 
under  the  decent  obscurity  of  disinterested  huminitarianism. 

But  although  Wellesley  did  not  yet  grasp,  as  in  fact,  nobody 
could  yet  grasp,  the  complete  ideal  of  the  Britisa  Empire  in 
India,  at  any  rate  he  saw  further  than  his  predecessors  : 
the  doctrine  of  the  Pax  Britannica  was  already  in  accepted 
political  fact  when  it  was  laid  down  that  the  i^eto  of  the 
Governor-General  must  stop  native  wars. 

'  An  intimate  alliance,  founded  upon  principles  which 
should  render  the  British  influence  and  militarj  force  the 
Negotiations  main  support '  of  the  Marathas  was  what  Wellesley 
Marathas  desired  ;  and  he  did  not  cease  to  press  it  earnestly 
1801-3.  on   the   Peshwa.     But   that   dignitary,   although 

he  continued  to  reside  at  Poona,  no  longer  possessed  any 
authority;  he  was  threatened  by  Sindhia,  the  most  pover- 
ful  of  the  Maratha  chiefs,  and  his  adhesion  to  Welleshy's 
proposals  would  have  been  of  little  advantage  to  him.  He 
would  merely  have  exchanged  one  master  for  another,  aad 
the  authority  of  the  foreigner  would  have  been  more  galliig 
and  less  easy  to  throw  off  than  that  of  Sindhia.  He  refused 
the  profiered  treaty ;  and  Wellesley,  in  tones  of  angry  dB- 
appointment,  complained  that  '  he  deliberately  preferred  a 
situation  of  degradation  and  danger,  with  nominal  indepenc- 
ence,  to  a  more  intimate  connection.' 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  169 

Thenceforward  the  Peshwa  temporised,  while  still  endeavour- 
ing to  draw  his  neighbour  at  Haidarabad  from  his  depend- 
ence. Wellesley  grew  suspicious,  and  the  British  agent  at 
the  court  of  Sindhia  was  now  instructed  to  press  the  advan- 
tages of  alhance  in  that  quarter.  Again  there  was  failure  : 
Sindhia  was  willing  enough  to  preserve  friendship,  but  he 
wished  for  no  closer  relationship. 

But  a  new  chief  had  now  appeared  among  the  Marathas, 
one  Holkar  ;  and  when  he  defeated  Sindhia  in  a  great  battle 
on  25th  October  1802,  the  Peshwa  fled  from  Poona,  ^j^g  Treaty 
and  took  refuge  among  the  British.  In  this  crisis,  of  Bassein, 
he  demanded  to  be  placed  in  safety  at  Bombay  : 
and  shortly  after  his  arrival  there,  the  now  helpless  Peshwa 
agreed  to  Wellesley 's  original  proposals,  and  the  Treaty  of 
Bassein  was  concluded  on  31st  December.  That  treaty  was 
the  foundation  of  all  our  subsequent  dealings  with  the 
Marathas  ;  but  in  itself  it  was  of  little  effect.  Sindhia  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  Holkar  laughed  it  to  scorn  ;  the 
smaller  chiefs  of  the  confederation  became  restless. 

In  face  of  their  hostility,  the  treaty  must  either  have  re- 
mained a  dead  letter  or  be  enforced  by  arms ;  and  if  the 
former  were  permitted,  the  Marathas  would  still  have  been 
a  danger  to  the  East  India  Company,  and  all  thought  of  the 
'  complete  consolidation  of  British  India,'  for  which  Wellesley 
was  avowedly  working,  must  have  been  given  up. 

In  the  reports  which  he  sent  home,  the  Governor-General 
invariably  spoke  of  war  as  improbable  ;  he  protested  that 
if  the  Peshwa,  and  consequently  the  Treaty  of  Bassein,  were 
not  desired  by  the  Marathas,  he  would  instantly  rehnquish 
every  attempt  upon  them ;  even  as  late  as  June  1803  he 
still  held  out  hopes  of  a  peaceful  outcome  when  writing  to 
London. 

Seven  months  before  that  date  the  armies  had  been  ready  ; 
three  months  before  that  date  they  had  started.  Fearing 
that  Poona  might  be  burnt  down  in  the  absence  of  the  Peshwa, 


170  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

Wellington  hurried  by  forced  marches  through  a  wild  and 
difficult  mountainous  country,  at  the  last,  indeed,  accom- 
pKshing  sixty  miles  in  thirty-two  hours  ;  and  he  occupied 
the  Maratha  capital  without  opposition.  An  ultimatum  was 
sent  to  Sindhia,  but  he  still  temporised :  '  After  my  inter- 
view with  the  Raja  (of  Berar)  you  shall  be  informed,'  he  sent 
word,  '  whether  it  will  be  peace  or  war/  The  message  was 
taken  as  an  insult ;  and  although  negotiations  still  continued, 
war  was  thenceforward  inevitable. 

The  main  plan  of  operations  was  clearly  sketched  out 
by  Wellesley.  Politically,  he  hoped  to  destroy  the  power 
The  Second  °^  ^^^  Marathas  over  the  Mughal  at  Delhi,  and 
Maratha  to  bring  him  under  British  protection  ;  and,  in 
'  ■  addition,  he  expected  to  expand  his  general  scheme 
of  tributary  alliances.  In  order  to  accomplish  this,  it  was 
necessary,  from  a  military  point  of  view,  to  conquer  all  those 
dominions  between  the  Jumna  and  the  Ganges  which  acknow- 
ledged Sindhia  ;  to  root  out  the  French  force  by  which  that 
district  was  protected  ;  and  to  extend  the  East  India  Com- 
pany's jurisdiction  to  the  Jumna,  including  Delhi  and  Agra 
and  a  chain  of  forts  in  that  region.  Further,  the  conquest 
of  Bundelkhand  was  contemplated. 

The  first  campaign  began  when  General  Lake,^  in  command 
of  an  army,  left  Cawnpur  on  7th  August.  After  storming  the 
Maratha  fortress  of  Aligur,  the  French  troops  were  defeated 
and  forced  to  retire  from  the  service  of  Sindhia.  Delhi  was 
reached,  and  entered  in  triumph  on  16th  September. 

In  a  vivid  despatch,  Wellesley  described  the  meeting  of  the 
British  general  and  the  Mughal.  '  The  crowd  in  the  city  was 
extraordinary  ;  and  it  was  with  some  difficulty  that  the 
cavalcade  could  make  its  way  to  the  palace.     The  courts  of 

'  A  valuable  biography  of  this  brave  General,  of  whom  it  was  once 
said  that  '  he  could  think  more  clearl}^  under  the  roar  of  battle  than  in 
the  calmness  and  quiet  of  his  tent,'  has  been  published  by  Colonel  Hugh 
Pearse.  Lake  had  gained  his  experience  in  the  Seven  Years'  Wars  and 
the  Imperial  Civil  War  before  he  went  to  India  in  1800.  He  died  in 
London  in  1808,  at  the  age  of  sixty-four. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  171 

the  palace  were  full  of  people,  anxious  to  witness  the  deliver- 
ance of  their  sovereign  from  a  state  of  degradation  and  bondage. 
At  length  the  Commander-in-Chief  was  ushered  into  the  royal 
presence,  and  found  the  unfortunate  and  venerable  Emperor, 
oppressed  by  the  accumulated  calamities  of  old  age,  degraded 
authority,  extreme  poverty,  and  loss  of  sight ;  seated  under  a 
small  tattered  canopy,  the  remnant  of  his  royal  state,  with 
every  external  appearance  of  the  misery  of  his  condition/  The 
hyperboUcal  language  of  the  native  writers  assures  us  that 
the  Mughal  at  once  recovered  his  sight  from  excess  of  joy  at 
his  deliverance ;  and  certainly  his  position  as  the  nominal 
chief  in  a  confederation  of  native  princes,  all  of  whom  were 
under  British  authority,  would  be  better  than  as  a  fallen 
monarch  under  the  absolute  control  of  Sindhia.  In  neither 
case  would  he  be  possessed  of  any  real  power  ;  but  at  least 
the  British  would  not  continually  outrage  his  dignity. 

Two  centuries  had  passed  since  the  first  English  ambassador 
had  attended  at  the  Court  of  the  Mughal,  and  had  been 
astounded  at  its  magnificence  and  wealth  ;  and  that  same 
ambassador  had  exhorted  his  coimtrymen  to  have  nothing 
to  do  with  thoughts  of  Asiatic  conquest,  but  to  confine  them- 
selves to  trade.  What  would  have  been  his  increduhty  had 
it  been  predicted  that  within  a  few  generations  the  British 
would  have  spread  themselves  through  all  India,  and  would 
one  day  rescue  the  Emperor  of  the  whole  peninsula  from  the 
degrading  bondage  to  which  he  had  sunk  in  the  hands  of  a  half- 
savage  usurper. 

Lake,  however,  had  little  time  for  ceremony,  and  still  less 
for  melancholy  reflections  on  the  decay  of  human  greatness ; 
within  a  few  days  he  pressed  on  to  Agra.  That  important 
city  taken,  he  went  in  pursuit  of  the  remains  of  Sindhia's 
northern  army.  At  the  severe  battle  of  Laswari,  the  enemy 
were  destroyed  or  dispersed ;  and  a  brilhant  campaign  thus 
came  to  an  end  after  three  months  of  unvarying  success. 

Meanwhile  Wellington  had  been  as  active  in  the  south  of 


172  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

the  Maratha  dominions  as  Lake  in  the  north.  Leaving  his 
camp  on  8th  August  1803,  he  had  marched  against  the  allied 
forces  of  Sindhia  and  the  Raja  of  Berar.  The  important 
fortress  of  Ahmednagar  captured,  he  followed  the  two  princes 
into  the  territories  of  Haidarabad,  whither  they  had  gone  to 
attack  the  Nizam. 

Coming  up  with  them  at  the  village  of  Assaye,  Welhngton 
decided  on  battle,  though  his  army  was  many  times  out- 
Assaye,  numbered  by  theirs.  The  fight  was  long,  severe, 
1803.  aQ(j   al;  gj.gf;  indecisive  ;    but  after  heavy  losses 

had  been  inflicted  on  the  British,  the  natives  fled,  leaving 
behind  an  enormous  number  of  dead,  besides  ninety-eight 
cannon  and  seven  standards. 

Sindhia  now  made  overtures  for  peace,  and  appHed  for  an 
armistice  :  but  as  nothing  was  heard  from  the  Raja  of  Berar, 
it  was  refused  ;  and  the  decisive  victory  of  Argaum  a  httle 
later  still  further  weakened  the  Maratha  forces. 

About  the  same  time  the  Madras  army  overran  and  con- 
quered Bundelkhand,  while  Guzerat  fell  before  the  troops  of 
the  Bombay  presidency.  Protracted  resistance  was  now 
hopeless  :  the  Marathas  were  on  the  verge  of  ruin  ;  and  on 
30th  November,  the  day  after  the  battle  of  Argaum,  a  con- 
ference was  requested.  It  was  granted  :  but  the  first  meet- 
ings resulted  in  nothing  save  tedious  recriminations.  Both 
Welhngton  and  his  enemies  looked  on  the  other  as  the  aggressor, 
and  it  was  some  time  before  the  representative  of  the  Marathas 
admitted  that,  however  the  war  might  have  begun,  his  master 
was  anxious  to  end  it. 

At  length,  a  treaty  was  concluded  with  the  Raja  of  Berar,  on 
condition  that  he  resigned  a  great  part  of  his  territory  ;  he  was 
unwilling  to  do  so,  but  Wellington  threatened  to  pursue  him  to 
his  capital  atNagpur  if  he  would  not  agree  to  the  terms  offered. 

The  whole  British  army  was  now  free  to  overwhelm  Sindhia  ; 
and  he,  too,  quickly  sent  an  emissary  to  negotiate.  Again 
began  the  interminable  disputes  as  to  who  was  the  aggressor, 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  173 

which  were  only  cut  short  by  Wellington's  brutally  direct 
remark  that,  whoever  had  started  the  war,  Sindhia  had  lost 
it.  The  long  conferences  lasted  nearly  three  weeks,  Sindhia 
disputing  vainly  over  each  piece  of  territory  that  he  was 
required  to  relinquish.  In  the  end,  the  treaty  was  concluded 
on  29th  December  1803  ;  and  Sindhia  gave  up  all  the  country 
between  the  Jumna  and  the  Ganges,  as  well  as  the  districts 
of  Jaipur,  Jodipur,  and  Gohud,  the  fort  and  territory  of 
Baroak,  Ahmednagar,  and  other  places ;  he  abandoned  all 
claims  on  the  British  Government,  and  agreed  that  all  the 
minor  princes  of  the  Maratha  states  should  be  dependent  on 
the  East  India  Company.  Unwillingly  he  was  forced  to  enter 
into  the  general  system  of  alliances,  the  EngUsh  binding 
themselves  at  the  same  time  not  to  interfere  between  him 
and  his  subjects.  No  French,  or  indeed  any  Europeans  or 
even  Americans  were  tc  be  allowed  in  his  dominions  without 
the  consent  of  the  Company  ;  and  he  was  bound  to  consult 
with  them  on  all  his  relations  with  his  neighbours. 

The  second  Maratha  War  thus  ended,  as  it  appeared,  in  the 
complete  subjection  of  those  states.  The  western  side  of 
India  was  therefore  added  to  the  enormous  con-  ^j^^  Annexa- 
federation  which  Wellesley  was  building  up  :  the  tionofoudh, 
south  was  already  British  ;  there  yet  remained 
the  north.  And  here  too  the  Governor-General  had  accom- 
phshed  much,  even  during  the  time  that  the  Mysore  and 
Maratha  Wars  were  in  progress.  The  conquest  of  Delhi  and 
Agra  belongs  to  the  latter  struggle  ;  in  Oudh  there  is  a  more 
intricate  series  of  events  to  unravel.  That  kingdom  had 
for  many  years  paid  tribute  to  the  East  India  Company. 
Lying  on  the  frontiers  of  Bengal,  it  had  been  more  or  less 
subject  to  British  influence  since  the  victories  of  Chve  and 
the  administration  of  Hastings  had  consolidated  British  power 
in  that  district. 

But  the  rulers  of  Oudh  had  still  preserved  the  functions  of 
royalty  at  Lucknow ;   and  when  Wellesley  arrived  in  India, 


174  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

they  controlled  their  own  army  and  levied  their  own  taxes. 
The  country  was  large  ;  the  people  were  industrious ;  the 
soil  was  fertile. 

But  during  the  last  few  years  a  terrible  change  had  come 
over  the  land.  The  new  ruler  was  far  more  ostentatious 
Misgovern-  than  his  predecessor,  and  his  resources  were 
mfsery^f  squandered  on  external  display.  Oudh,  from 
oudh.  being  one  of  the  richest  of  the  Indian  provinces, 

became  one  of  the  poorest.  When  Cornwallis  visited  it,  he 
was  shocked  by  its  desolate  appearance  ;  on  aU  sides  were 
signs  of  a  disordered  government  and  a  poverty-stricken  people. 
A  great  part  of  the  blame,  it  is  true,  must  be  imputed  to  the 
East  India  Company  :  for  it  was  from  Oudh  that  Warren 
Hastings  had  extorted  some  of  the  heaviest  subsidies.  But 
considerable  reparation  was  made  when  Cornwallis  reduced 
the  amount  of  the  annual  contributions  ;  and  still  the  state 
of  the  country  did  not  improve.  Rather  did  it  continue  to 
deteriorate  :  when  CornwalHs  left  India,  in  1793,  he  placed  it 
on  record  that '  The  evils  which  prevailed  .  .  .  had  increased  ; 
the  finances  had  fallen  into  a  worse  state  by  an  enormous 
accumulated  debt ;  the  same  oppressions  continued  to  be 
exercised  .  .  .  towards  the  ryots  ;  and  not  only  the  subjects 
and  merchants  of  Oudh,  but  those  residing  under  the  Com- 
pany's protection,  suffered  many  exactions."  And  that 
Governor-General  attributed  the  whole  source  of  the  evil  to 
'  the  connivance  and  irregularities  of  the  administration  of 
Lucknow.' 

Sir  John  Shore,  the  successor  of  Cornwallis,  took  the  same 
view,  and  again  recommended  reform  and  economy.  Were 
nothing  done,  it  was  evident  that  the  kingdom  and  all  within 
it  must  soon  be  ruined,  and,  in  consequence,  the  contribution 
annually  paid  to  the  East  India  Company  must  lapse. 

It  seemed,  indeed,  that  the  financial  system  was  past 
restoration.  '  The  discharge  of  one  debt  was  effected,  not 
from  the  revenue,  but  by  contracting  another  at  an  increasing 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  175 

interest.'  In  spite  of  Shore's  policy  of  non-intervention,  he 
was  forced  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  Oudh,  to  such  a  crisis 
had  matters  now  come :  and,  in  March  1797,  he  visited 
Lucknow  with  the  purpose  of  restoring  some  semblance  of 
order.  The  unfortunate  Governor  immediately  found  him- 
self involved  in  a  maze  of  court  intrigue  and  scandal ;  the 
legitimacy  of  the  reigning  prince  was  impugned,  and  Shore 
confessed  that  he  was  utterly  confused  by  the  conflict  of 
testimony  as  to  the  bastardy  of  the  man  with  whom  he  had 
come  to  remonstrate.  Eventually  he  determined  on  his 
deposition. 

But  matters  had  not  improved  when  Wellesley  arrived  ; 
and  it  was  impossible  for  one  who  intended  to  consoUdate 
India  to  leave  this  plague-spot  of  misgovernment  on  the  very 
border  of  Bengal,  Accordingly  he  pressed  a  treaty  on  the 
Prince  of  Oudh  ;  but  it  was  a  different  treaty  from  that  which 
he  invited  the  other  native  rulers  to  sign.  It  provided  for 
the  abdication  of  the  prince,  and  it  did  not  provide  for  a 
successor  :  the  native  troops  were  to  be  disbanded,  since 
they  were  '  useless,  if  not  dangerous  ' ;  Enghsh  soldiers  were 
to  be  substituted  for  them ;  and  a  general  reform  of  the 
administration  was  outlined. 

Objection  was  naturally  taken,  but  WeUesley  stood  firm. 
He  and  his  ancestors  had  held  Oudh  for  seven  hundred  years, 
said  the  vizir ;  why  then  should  he  now  be  deposed  ?  His 
soldiers  were  capable  of  the  defence  of  the  country  ;  why  then 
should  they  now  be  disbanded  ? 

For  answer  Wellesley  sent  a  British  regiment.  The  vizir 
complained,  equivocated,  delayed,  and  employed  the  usual 
devices  of  the  weak  when  strugghng  against  the  strong  ;  but 
his  troops  were  dismissed,  and  their  arrears  of  pay  settled  in 
full  by  the  East  India  Company  to  avoid  any  disorder. 

StiU  the  vizir  complained,  and  the  misery  of  the  kingdom 
continued ;  the  revenue  was,  as  usual,  collected  in  advance 
from  the  wretched  ryots,  and  the  insecurity  of  their  tenure 


176  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

was  as  fatal  to  tlie  welfare  of  the  country  as  ever.  At  length 
it  became  impossible  to  haggle  over  terms  any  longer ;  and 
on  10th  November  1801  the  treaty  was  signed. 

The  abdication  of  the  prince  was  not  insisted  on,  and  he 
became  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  the  English.  But  the 
whole  administration  of  Oudh  from  that  day  passed  to  the 
East  India  Company ;  and  Wellesley  anticipated  a  speedy 
return  of  order,  industry,  and  prosperity.  It  did  not  occur 
during  his  period  of  office  :  but  at  least  one  more  step  was 
taken  in  the  consohdation  of  the  British  Indian  Empire. 

Wellesley  had  hoped  that  the  trouble  with  the  Marathas 
was  finally  at  an  end  ;    instead,  it  was  only  beginning.     In 
„      spite  of  the  treaties  which  bound  them,  all  the 
fortunes,        chiefs  were    restless.     Sindhia  was    crushed,  but 
1803-5.  ^^Yy    for    a    time.     Bundelkhand    was    ripe    for 

revolt.  Bharatpur  was  a  hotbed  of  intrigue.  And  there  yet 
remained  Holkar.  The  most  powerful  of  all  the  Maratha 
chiefs  since  the  victory  which  had  driven  the  Peshwa  from 
Poona,  he  had  taken  no  part  in  the  late  war.  But  while 
he  professed  his  friendship  for  the  East  India  Company, 
there  were  few  princes  with  whom  he  had  not  conspired 
secretly  against  the  Enghsh.  AVhen  peace  was  concluded 
with  Sindhia,  Holkar  too  was  offered  the  treaty  which  Welles- 
ley wished  to  make  with  every  native  ruler. 

He  replied  amicably,  but  deceit  was  in  his  heart.  Inter- 
cepted letters  proved  his  intrigues  ;  and  he  was  warned.  His 
army  menaced  the  British  provinces  ;  and  he  was  asked  to 
withdraw  it.  In  reply,  he  made  impossible  demands  on 
Wellesley,  and  threatened  WelUngton  that  our  '  countries 
should  be  overrun,  plundered,  and  burnt ;  we  should  not 
have  leisure  to  breathe  for  a  moment,  and  calamities  would 
fall  on  thousands  of  human  beings  in  continued  war  by  the 
attacks  of  his  army,  which  overwhelmed  like  the  waves  of  the 
sea.' 

Such  preposterous  language  could  not  be  allowed  for  a 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  177 

moment,  and  Wellington  prepared  for  war.  But  fortune 
seemed  now  to  have  deserted  the  British  arms.  Holkar, 
indeed,  was  forced  to  retreat,  but  he  was  not  defeated.  It 
was  almost  impossible  for  WeUington  to  advance  through 
the  Deccan,  for  that  district  was  suffering  from  a  scarcity  that 
might  have  been  called  a  famine. 

Elsewhere,  it  is  true,  one  or  two  successes  stood  out  isolated 
in  the  general  failure  of  the  British  arms.  Indore  was  cap- 
tured ;  and  when  Holkar  surprised  Delhi,  that  city,  which 
had  hitherto  always  capitulated  at  the  first  approach  of  an 
enemy,  was  gallantly  defended.  The  garrison  was  so  small 
that  nobody  dared  undress,  or  go  off  duty.  For  nine  days 
the  troops  had  no  rest,  and  the  men  were  kept  awake  and  in 
good  humour  by  gifts  of  sweetmeats.  At  length,  after  a  suc- 
cessful sortie  by  the  British,  Holkar  retired  baffled  ;  and  soon 
afterwards,  his  southern  possessions  were  conquered,  and  he 
himself  was  defeated  under  the  walls  of  Dig. 

But  these  small  victories  could  not  be  set  off  against  our 
misfortunes  in  Bundelkhand  and  elsewhere.  The  British 
army  was  almost  overwhelmed  by  the  rains  ;  General  Monson, 
who  was  in  command,  was  obliged  to  spike  his  guns  and  leave 
the  country  as  best  he  could ;  and  this  was  but  the  prelude 
to  a  long  and  disastrous  retreat  through  Central  India. 

In  Bharatpur  it  was  the  same.  The  Raja  of  that  country 
was  allied  with  the  British  by  treaty  ;  but  he  was  more  than 
disposed  to  join  with  Holkar.  Wellesley  remonstrated  in 
lofty  tones  :  '  The  just  principles  of  policy,  as  well  as  the 
characteristic  lenity  and  mercy  of  the  British  Government, 
required  that  a  due  indulgence  should  be  manifested  towards 
the  imbecility,  ignorance,  and  indolence  of  the  native  chiefs, 
who  had  been  drawn  into  these  acts  by  the  depravity  and 
artifices  of  their  servants  and  adherents.'  But  his  words 
were  of  no  effect :  the  Raja  disregarded  the  treaty  ;  and  an 
army  was  sent  against  him.  The  strength  of  the  fortress  of 
Bharatpur  defied  all  our  efforts  ;  after  repeated  assaults,  and 

VOL.  II.  M 


178  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

heavy  loss,  it  was  found  impossible  to  capture  it.  Meanwhile 
there  were  continual  disputes  with  Sindhia,  and  no  advan- 
tage was  gained  against  Holkar  :  eventually  the  two  chiefs 
joined  forces.  The  whole  Maratha  trouble  seemed  about  to 
begin  again. 

But  the  expenses  of  the  war  were  enormous.  The  directors 
of  the  East  India  Company  had  long  chafed  under  the  forward 
Recall  of  policy.  They  were  now  able  to  urge  that  it  was 
weuesiey,  not  merely  costly,  but  that  it  also  led  to  nothing  ; 
that  our  conquests  were  not  permanent,  and  that 
they  were  unprofitable  even  if  they  were  permanent.  They 
could  point  to  the  miserable  poverty  of  the  Madras  presidency  ; 
to  the  wretched  state  of  Oudh  ;  to  the  anarchy  of  the  Maratha 
territories.  All  these  troubles  could,  with  some  plausibihty, 
be  ascribed  to  Wellesley  ;  and  the  expenditure  they  involved 
was  undeniable.  The  directors  of  the  Company  omitted 
to  remark  that  under  his  rule  the  menace  of  a  French  con- 
quest of  India  had  been  dissipated. 

The  British  Government  became  alarmed.  It  was  the 
darkest  hour  of  the  struggle  with  Napoleon.  The  French 
His  Policy  armies  were  at  Boulogne,  menacing  England 
Abandoned,  every  day ;  Europe  lay  at  the  feet  of  the 
triumphant  dictator ;  and  Trafalgar  was  not  yet  won. 
It  was  no  time  to  conquer  India  when  England  herself 
might  fall.  Accordingly  the  Ministry  yielded  to  the  repre- 
sentations of  the  East  India  Company.  Wellesley  was  re- 
called ;  and  in  his  place  Cornwallis  was  sent  out  for  a  second 
term  of  ofiice,  now  in  extreme  old  age,  feeble,  and  lying  almost 
at  death's  door.  There  was  a  sudden  and  complete  reversal 
of  pohcy  :  the  new  Governor-General  was  charged  to  make 
peace  with  the  Marathas  on  almost  any  terms  ;  and  an  era  of 
severe  economy  set  in. 

So  ended  Wellesley 's  Governor-Generalship  in  defeat  and 
apparent  failure.  The  expansion  he  had  planned  was  dis- 
approved.     The   system    of  alliances    with   the  natives,  so 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  179 

elaborately  constructed,  collapsed  like  a  house  of  cards. 
The  British  put  aside  their  dream  of  empire  in  India,  and 
once  more  became  commercial. 

But  the  reaction  lasted  for  a  few  years  only.  The  main 
features  of  Wellesley's  policy  were  amply  justified  long  before 
his  death.  He  had  seen  that  there  would  be  no  ^^^  eventu- 
peace  for  India  until  the  Marathas  were  crushed  ;  any  vindi- 
and  crushed  they  were,  after  a  long  and  severe 
struggle  fifteen  years  later.  He  had  declared  that  every 
native  ruler  must  be  brought  to  depend  on  the  sovereign 
British  power  ;  and  the  next  fifty  years  saw  the  gradual 
accomphshment  of  his  idea.  He  perceived  that  the  whole 
of  India  must  be  protected  against  the  savage  tribes  of  the 
north  by  a  large  army,  and  a  consolidated  system  of  defence  : 
the  general  experience  of  the  nineteenth  century  proved  the 
truth  of  his  words,  and  it  is  still  the  standard  doctrine  of 
the  present  day. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  LAST  MAEATHA  WAR  :    1805-28 1 

When  Lord  WeUesley,  the  fourth  Governor-General  of  British 
India,  arrived  at  Calcutta  in  the  year  1798,  the  fate  of  the 
great  oriental  peninsula  was  still  undecided.  India  as  a 
whole  might  have  fallen  either  to  the  English,  the  French, 
or  the  Marathas  ;  or  it  might  have  been  spHt  up  once  more  into 
small  provinces  mider  separate  Hindu  and  Musalman  rulers, 
after  a  more  or  less  prolonged  period  of  anarchy  and  civil 
war.     But  when  Wellesley  left  the  East  seven  years  later, 

^  Authorities. — Mill's  History  of  India,  which  stops  at  1805,  is  con- 
tinued by  H.  H.  Wilson  as  far  as  1835.  Wilson  is  more  impartial  and 
interesting  than  Mill ;  but  then  he  had  been  in  India,  and  Mill  had  not. 
In  addition,  Minto's  Life  and  Letto-^  should  be  consulted  for  the  term  of 
his  Governor-Generalship.  For  the  whole  period,  Hunter  is  an  indis- 
pensable guide  ;  Malleson's  Native  States  of  India  is  also  useful. 


180  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

only  the  English  and  the  Marathas  counted  as  factors  in  the 
struggle  for  the  empire  of  India ;  and  between  these  two 
the  English  held  an  enormous  permanent  advantage, 
although  at  the  time  the  Marathas  were  apparently 
victorious.  Wellesley  could  therefore  justly  claim  that  he 
had  '  finally  placed  the  British  power  in  India  in  a  command- 
ing position.' 

But  with  that  curious  alternation  of  advance  and  retreat 
which  appears  in  every  phase  of  our  pohtics,  the  time  had  come 
Abandon-  when  the  forward  military  policy  of  Britain  in  Asia 
Forward  ^  ^^^  ^^  ^®  abandoned.  Its  expense  had  frightened 
Policy.  the  directors  of  the  East  India  Company,  and 

had  made  even  the  imperial  authorities  uneasy.  Cornwallis 
was  hurriedly  sent  out  to  patch  up  a  general  peace,  and  to 
economise  in  every  department  of  the  State  ;  while  Wellesley 
on  his  return  to  England  had  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  abuse,  and 
to  be  the  butt  of  that  uninformed  and  prejudiced  criticism 
which  it  is  the  eternal  privilege  of  the  stay-at-home  to  direct 
at  those  who  have  acted  instead  of  merely  talking.  A  vain 
attempt  was  made  to  impeach  him  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
One  Member  of  Parliament  arraigned  his  conduct  in  Oudh, 
'  by  which  the  Nawab  in  defiance  of  justice  had  been  degraded 
and  disgraced  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.'  Other  charges 
were  added,  consonant  with  a  recent  motion  by  Sir  Philip 
Francis,  whose  inexhaustible  venom  was  directed  at  one 
Governor-General  after  another,  that  '  to  pursue  schemes  of 
conquest  and  aggrandisement  in  India  is  repugnant  to  the 
wish,  the  honour,  and  the  policy  of  this  country.' 

But  the  agitation  against  Wellesley  fell  flat.  Fox  frankly 
avowed  that  since  the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings  he  would 
have  no  more  to  do  with  Indian  impeachments ;  even  the 
seconder  of  the  motion  declared  that  he  was  ashamed  of  it ; 
and  the  member  who  had  originally  brought  it  forward  was 
rejected  by  his  constituents  at  the  next  election.  An  inter- 
mittent controversy  on  the  subject  was,  it  is  true,  maintained 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  181 

for  some  years,  but  the  feeble  attempts  to  disgrace  Wellesley 
all  failed  ;  and  the  East  India  Company,  which  had  been 
hostile  to  him  on  his  retm:n  as  one  who  had  wasted  its  sub- 
stance, came  in  time  to  recognise  his  great  services  before  his 
death. 

Wellington's  recent  conquests  in  India,  indeed,  had  aroused 
comparatively  little  attention  at  home,  for  the  terrific  struggle 
with  Napoleon  in  Europe  overshadowed  the  remoter  pohtics 
of  Asia  ;  and  British  Indian  problems  were  already  far  too 
intricate  to  be  anything  but  the  occupation  of  speciaUsts. 
Wisely  recognising  the  necessary  limitations  of  their  know- 
ledge, English  poHticians  from  this  time  generally  left  Indian 
afiairs  alone.  There  was  some  temporary  excitement  when 
the  renewal  of  the  East  India  Company's  charter  was  debated 
in  the  first  Reformed  Parliament  of  1833,  and  a  fundamental 
change  was  made  in  the  character  of  that  powerful  corporation ;  ^ 
the  terrible  disaster  of  1841  in  Afghanistan,  and  the  Mutiny 
of  1857,  made  not  England  alone,  but  all  Europe,  shudder ; 
but  apart  from  these  events,  which  in  the  popular  estimation 
stood  out  incorrectly  as  almost  the  sole  features  worthy  of 
remembrance  in  a  crowded  century,  the  British  people  as  a 
whole  were  content  to  remain  in  ignorance  of  their  Indian 
possessions. 

When  Cornwalhs  arrived  a  second  time  in  the  East, 
a  dying  man,  to  change  the  whole  forward  poHcy  of 
Wellesley  for  one  of  retrenchment  and  peace,  his  report  on  the 
condition  of  India  was  extremely  pessimistic.    According  to 

^  I  append  the  names  and  dates  of  some  of  the  ephemei'al  tracts  and 
pamphlets  published  regarding  India  at  this  time — The  Present  State  and 
Failure  Prospects  of  the  Free  Trade  and  Colonisation  of  India,  1829;  Aye 
or  No  on  the  India  Question :  A  Few  Words  to  the  Reformed  Parliament, 
1833 — both  treating  of  the  renewal  of  the  Company's  charter  ;  Reasons  for 
the  Establishment  of  a  New  Bank  in  India,  1836;  The  Export  of  Coolies 
and  other  Labourers  to  Mauritius,  1842  ;  Reasons  for  Railways  in  Madras 
and  Bombay,  1847;  Is  India  to  have  Railivays  ?'lS53.  To  these  may  be 
added  the  general  series  known  aa  India  Reform  Tracts,  representing  the 
advanced  radical  opinion  of  mid-Victorian  times.  The  numerous  works 
of  the  Evangelical  school  must  be  studied  for  the  project  of  introducing 
Christianity  in  India,  which  engaged  much  attention  at  this  time. 


182  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

the  new  Governor-General,  '  the  most  brilliant  success  could 
afford  no  solid  benefit ' ;  the  state  of  the  finances  was  '  most 
discouraging ' ;  the  aUiance  with  the  Peshwa  was  '  an  in- 
tolerable burden  ' ;  it  was  '  with  great  regret '  that  he  saw 
the  treaty  with  Haidarabad ;  and  he  finally  declared,  in  a 
phrase  that  can  only  be  read  with  amazement,  that  '  not 
the  least  unfortunate  consequences  of  .  .  .  our  alliances 
has  been  the  gradually  increasing  ascendency  of  the  British 
influence  and  authority.' 

But  Cornwallis  belonged  to  a  school  of  Anglo-Indian  states- 
men whose  day  was  over  ;  and  although  he  and  his  successor 
wished  to  stop  the  expansion  of  the  empire,  they  were  only 
able  to  delay  it  for  a  few  years.  An  ignominious  agreement 
was  at  once  arranged  with  the  Marathas,  to  the  utter  disgust 
of  many  of  the  officers  and  civilians  who  had  served  under 
Wellesley,  and  who  foresaw  that  a  final  struggle  with  that 
confederation  was  inevitable  ;  and  Sir  George  Barlow,  who 
succeeded  automatically  to  the  Governor-Generalship  on  the 
death  of  Cornwallis,  was  prepared  to  go  even  further  in  his 
desire  for  economy. 

Much  of  the  land  in  dispute  Avith  Sindhia  was  now  re- 
stored ;  all  of  Holkar's  territories  were  given  back.  Bundelk- 
hand  alone  was  retained,  but  it  was  not  thoroughly  subdued  ; 
and  the  Rajas  of  Rajputana,  whom  Britain  had  sworn  to 
protect  from  the  Marathas,  were  abandoned.  In  these 
measures  Barlow  was  supported  by  the  directors  of  the  East 
India  Company,  and  by  the  Council  at  Calcutta,  which 
declared  that  '  a  certain  extent  of  dominion,  local  power, 
and  revenue  would  be  cheaply  sacrificed  for  tranquillity  and 
security  within  a  more  contracted  circle ' ;  they  believed, 
too,  that  nothing  could  now  be  '  apprehended  from  the  further 
depredations  of  banditti,'  and  they  vainly  hoped  that  these 
concessions  would  be  accepted  as  a  sign  of  magnanimity. 

Barlow  was  one  of  those  men  of  hard,  cold  character  who 
can  only  see  a  short  way  ahead,  but  who  follow  that  way  with 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  183 

undeviating  purpose.  His  inflexible  and  unsympathetic 
manner  soon  became  unpopular  in  the  East,  and  his  policy 
was  disliked  by  the  Cabinet  at  home  ;  but  for  some  time  the 
members  of  the  British  Government  could  not  agree  as  to  the 
appointment  of  a  successor.  At  length  the  choice  fell  on 
Lord  Minto,  who  served,  as  he  himself  said,  as  a  sort  of  peace- 
offering  between  the  opponents.  His  reputation  in  England 
was  that  of  an  able  man  of  moderate  opinions  ;  to  Anglo- 
Indians,  however,  he  was  something  of  an  unknown  quantity. 
Proud  of  being  numbered  '  among  those  whom  Burke  loved 
best  and  most  trusted,'  he  had  been  one  of  the  managers  at 
the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings,  and  might  therefore  have  been 
expected  to  favour  the  extreme  exponents  of  the  doctrine  of 
British  non-intervention  in  the  affairs  of  the  independent 
native  Indian  states ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  had  come 
much  under  the  influence  of  the  younger  Pitt,  who  had  been 
directly  responsible  for  the  appointment  of  Wellesley. 

His  actions  showed  Minto  to  be  a  firm  yet  cautious  ruler. 
Of  strong  common  sense,  and  gifted  with  a  playful,  sunny 
disposition — even  his  ofiicial  correspondence  is  occasionally 
reHeved  by  a  witty  remark  ^ — the  six  years  of  his  governorship 
mark  an  intermediate  period  between  the  conquests  of 
Wellesley  and  the  long  series  of  wars  under  his  successors, 
Hastings  and  Amherst. 

Among  the  instructions  which  Minto  had  received  from  the 
East  India  Company,  particular  stress  had  been  laid  upon 
the  policy  of  non-intervention,  which  the  directors  consist- 
ently favoured  ;  and  the  Governor-General  honourably  en- 
deavoured to  obey  orders  without  weakening  the  prestige  of 
the  British  in  Asia.  But  those  who  have  entered  on  the  path 
of  empire  cannot  draw  back  unless  they  resign  their  calHng 

^  The  mass  of  routine  work  was  already  so  great  as  to  occupy  prac- 
tically the  whole  time  of  the  Governor-General.  Minto  laughingly 
alludes  in  his  correspondence  to  his  strong  tendency  to  go  to  sleep  when 
the  monotony  was  more  than  usually  tiresome;  but  'if  the  sovereign 
nods,'  he  added,  '  the  empire  must  fall  to  pieces.' 


184  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

altogether  ;  and  it  is  significant  of  the  onward  march  of  those 
forces  which  no  ruler  and  no  policy  can  neglect  or  oppose 
with  impunity,  that  under  the  pacific  rule  of  Minto  the  in- 
fluence of  Britain  began  to  penetrate  among  states  that  lay 
far  beyond  the  frontier  fixed  by  Wellesley,  while  the  first  signs 
of  our  expansion  appeared  in  lands  which  even  WelHngton 
would  have  regarded  it  as  madness  to  invade. 

Once  more  it  was  the  fear  of  French  rivalry  that  urged  the 
British  forward.  The  French  had  indeed  lost  everything  in 
Diplomatic  I^^dia.  But  Napoleon,  who  was  then  at  the 
Missions  zenith  of  his  fame,  still  possessed  dreams  of 
un  er  in  o.  ^gjg^^jg  conquest ;  and  France  yet  possessed  im- 
portant island  stations  on  the  high  seas  that  might  have  been 
used  as  dangerous  bases  for  an  attack  on  the  eastern  con- 
tinent. Under  Minto,  therefore,  the  Moluccas,  Bourbon, 
Mauritius,  and  Java  were  all  seized  by  Britain  ;  ^  and  French 
power  in  the  Indian  Ocean  existed  no  more  until  the  con- 
quest of  Madagascar  was  accomplished  nearly  a  century  later. 

But  it  was  hardly  by  sea  that  a  descent  on  India  was  now 
feared.  France  had  recently  concluded  an  alhance  with 
Russia  ;  both  were  endeavouring  to  extend  their  influence 
in  Persia  and  Afghanistan  in  order,  as  was  supposed,  that 
their  combined  forces  might  make  an  attack  on  India  over- 
land. The  two  powers  had  as  yet  made  no  progress  towards 
an  amicable  understanding  with  the  wild  Afghan  tribes  ;  but 
in  the  enfeebled  and  corrupt  Court  of  Persia  their  influence 
was  soon  supreme.  Magnificent  embassies  and  numerous 
military  retinues  were  sent  thither  ;  French  political  agents 
seemed  suddenly  to  swarm  all  over  Asia,  and  some  even 
appeared  to  tempt  the  Indian  princes  from  their  alhance  with 
England.  It  was  rumoured  that  Napoleon  had  planned  a 
descent  on  Persia  through  Turkey  and  Asia  Minor ;  and, 
though  the  plan  of  campaign  which  was  attributed  to  him 

^  For  the  history  of  these  islands  under  British  rule,  see  book  viii. 
chap.  iv.  and  vol.  iv. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  185 

now  appears  fantastically  impossible,  the  man  at  whose  feet 
the  whole  of  Europe  then  lay  seemed  able  at  that  time  to 
accompUsh  anything  to  which  he  set  his  hand. 

At  any  rate,  Mnto  wisely  determined  to  leave  nothing  to 
chance,  and  he  prepared  to  improve  the  defences  of  India  ; 
at  the  same  time  remarking  that,  in  the  event  of  actual 
invasion,  it  was  better  to  meet  the  enemy  in  Persia  than 
in  British  territory.  In  addition,  he  decided  to  send  embassies 
to  Persia  and  Afghanistan,  in  order  to  counteract  the  designs 
of  the  French  in  those  coim tries.  These  measures,  it  is  true, 
involved  heavy  expenditure,  and  some  departure  from  the 
policy  of  non-intervention  ;  but  the  East  India  Company 
perceptibly  relaxed  its  attitude  of  strict  economy  when  the 
justice  of  Minto's  representations  was  reahsed. 

There  was  nothing  novel  in  the  appearance  of  a  British 
embassy  at  an  Asiatic  court.  For  many  years  every  visit 
by  an  agent  of  the  Company  to  the  courts  of  India  had  been 
regarded  as  an  opening  up  of  fresh  relations  with  foreign 
powers.  An  official  ambassador  from  England  had  already 
appeared  in  China.  And  commercial  relations  with  Persia 
were  not  new,  while  Wellesley  had  sent  an  ambassador  to 
that  country  in  1800. 

But  the  two  British  agents  who  visited  Persia  while  Minto 
was  Governor- General  of  India  were  both  unsuccessful  in 
their  missions.  The  first  failed  because  of  the  overbearing 
tone  in  which  he  insisted  on  the  instant  dismissal  of  the  French 
members  of  the  royal  circle.  The  second  certainly  concluded 
a  treaty  with  the  Shah,  but  this  proved  merely  a  negative 
advantage  ;  for  the  only  important  clause  of  that  treaty 
compelled  Britain  to  furnish  military  aid  in  the  event  of 
Persia  being  at  war  with  a  foreign  power ;  and  when  Persia 
became  involved  in  a  ruinous  struggle  with  Russia  in  1826, 
we  refused  to  fulfil  our  promise. 

But  by  the  time  the  two  ambassadors  had  returned  from 
Persia,  the  menace  from  Napoleon  was  less  urgent.    Spain 


186  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

was  now  opposing  a  brave  resistance  to  his  invasion  of  the 
south  of  Europe,  and  before  Minto  left  India  the  great  army 
of  the  French  Emperor  had  fallen  a  victim  to  the  snows  of 
Russia. 

More  important  in  their  ultimate  results  were  the  other 
diplomatic  missions  organised  by  Minto.  For  the  first  time 
in  the  history  of  India  a  British  embassy  crossed  the  Indus, 
and  pressed  on  to  Peshwar,  where  the  chief  of  the  Afghans 
was  interviewed  ;  while  a  second  embassy  visited  the  head 
of  the  Sildis  at  Lahore.  Thus  was  the  scope  of  Indian  pohcy 
widened,  and  the  circle  of  British  diplomatic  influence  en- 
larged ;  and  although  no  immediate  territorial  aggrandise- 
ment was  obtained,  the  temptation  already  existed  when  the 
magnificence  of  the  Punjab  became  known.  And  there  were 
also  solid  reasons  to  be  urged  for  obtaining  a  securer  frontier 
against  the  Afghans,  while  mihtary  ambition  could  dwell  on 
the  chances  of  glory  and  promotion  in  a  campaign  beyond  the 
Indus.  Another  thirty  years,  and  British  armies  had  been 
seen  both  in  Kabul  and  the  Punjab. 

But  Minto  was  far  from  such  thoughts  of  expansion.  With 
the  limitations  that  had  been  imposed  upon  him,  it  was 
enough  if  he  could  keep  the  British  possessions  intact,  and 
preserve  order  therein.  Bundelkhand  had  not  been  thoroughly 
reduced  during  Wellesley's  term  of  office,  and  Minto  was 
forced  to  undertake  a  number  of  punitive  mihtary  opera- 
tions before  peace  could  be  restored  in  that  country.  The 
affairs  of  the  Madras  presidency  hkewise  required  attention  ; 
there  was  continued  disaffection  in  the  local  army ;  and 
Barlow,  who  was  now  Governor  of  the  South,  had  made 
himself  generally  unpopular  there,  as  he  had  in  Bengal,  by 
his  passion  for  economy,  that  least  appreciated  of  all  the 
unattractive  virtues,  both  in  public  and  domestic  hfe. 

Another  matter  that  called  for  stern  measures  was  the  in- 
creasing depredations  of  the  dacoits.  Those  robber  gangs 
had  of  late  imposed  a  terrorist  system  on  many  parts  of  India. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  187 

'  If  a  family  was  half  murdered,  and  half  tortured,  the  tor- 
tured survivors  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  appear  against 
the  criminals.  Men  have  been  found  vnth  the  limbs  and 
half  the  flesh  of  their  bodies  consumed  by  slow  fixe,  who  per- 
sisted in  saying  that  they  had  fallen  into  their  own  fire.  .  .  . 
They  knew,  if  they  spoke,  they  would  either  themselves  or 
the  remaining  members  of  their  famihes,  be  despatched  the 
same  evening.'  Such  are  Minto's  own  words  ;  and  although 
he  was  unable  to  suppress  the  dacoits  altogether,  much  was 
done  to  reduce  their  evil  power. 

Thus  in  keeping  order  on  the  frontiers  and  inland,  in  re- 
buking the  pretensions  of  foreign  potentates,  native  rajas, 
or  predatory  chiefs,  the  busy  seven  years  of  Minto's  rule  in 
India  drew  to  a  close  ;  and  the  directors  of  the  East  India 
Company  received  the  news  of  his  intention  to  retire  almost 
at  the  same  time  that  they  demanded  his  resignation.  A 
home-loving  man,  the  Governor-General  had  for  months 
counted  the  very  days  tiU  he  should  return  to  Scotland  and 
his  family  ;  but,  hurrying  northwards  immediately  on  his 
arrival  in  England,  he  was  taken  suddenly  ill  and  died  on 
the  road.  Long  afterwards,  the  letters  he  had  written  from 
Calcutta  to  his  wife  at  Minto,  fondly  anticipating  many  years 
of  quiet  happiness  together  in  the  decline  of  their  Hves,  were 
found  tied  up  in  black  string,  and  endorsed  in  her  hand- 
writing, '  Poor  Fools.'  The  earthly  hope  was  turned  to  dust 
in  the  very  moment  of  its  fulfilment. 

The  Marquis  of  Hastings,  who  followed  Minto  as  Governor- 
General  in  1813,  had  been  a  man  of  no  great  distinction  in 
England  ;  ^  the  gossips  said,  indeed,  that  he  owed  marquia  of 
his  appointment  mainly  to  his  friendship  with  Hastings, 
the  Prince  Regent.  But,  as  often  happens  among 
men  of  aristocratic  family  in  whom  the  tradition  of  govern- 
ment is  hereditary,  he  rose  to  the  occasion  ;   and  the  long 

^  He  had,  however,  taken  part  in  the  Imperial  Civil  War  as  a  young 
man,  and  General  Burgoyne  declared  that  he  '  behaved  to  a  charm.' 


188  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

period  of  ten  years  during  which  he  was  the  supreme  governor 
of  British  India  marked  a  still  further  advance  of  the  British 
power  in  Asia.  If  the  forward  pohcy  was  not  again  initiated 
of  set  purpose,  it  was  at  any  rate  followed  in  fact.  The 
British  had  conquered  half  India,  and  the  directors  of  the 
East  India  Company  would  have  been  well  satisfied  to  have 
kept  their  dominions,  without  either  expansion  or  contrac- 
tion. But  the  last  eight  years  had  clearly  proved  that  it  was 
impossible  to  stand  still.  CornwaUis  had  urgently  desired 
peace  ;  he  had  been  obhged  to  give  up  territory  to  obtain  it. 
Barlow  had  done  the  same  ;  but  his  concessions  had  been 
derided  as  weakness  by  the  natives,  and  every  httle  prince 
and  chief  had  assumed  a  tone  of  supercihous  condescension 
in  deaHng  with  the  exalted  heads  of  the  British  Government 
in  India.  Even  when  the  passion  for  economy  was  at  its 
height,  Barlow  had  been  compelled  to  send  punitive  expedi- 
tions to  restore  order  in  various  places.  Minto  likewise  was 
no  lover  of  war,  and  he  had  no  wish  to  incur  increased  re- 
sponsibihties,  although  he  would  not  have  shirked  them  had 
they  become  necessary.  And  they  did  in  fact  become  neces- 
sary ;  for  he  was  obhged  to  keep  old  foes  in  check,  to  open  up 
relations  with  new  states,  which  were  also  potential  enemies, 
to  conquer  islands  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  to  extirpate  pirates 
in  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  to  offer  to  protect  China  against  the 
French. 

Peace  remained  indeed  the  ideal  for  British  India.  But 
there  could  be  no  real  peace  until  India  was  altogether  British  ; 
for  every  hungry  band  of  frontier  robbers,  every  petty  raja 
who  remained  unsubdued  in  the  interior,  could  descend  on 
the  fertile  and  industrious  British  provinces  to  plunder  and 
ravage  at  will.  One  such  raid  would  disturb  the  sense  of 
security ;  a  succession  would  destroy  all  feeling  of  imperial 
protection. 

A  typical  instance  of  the  frontier  dangers  to  which  India 
was  exposed  was  provided  by  the  Nepal  War,  which  occupied 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  189 

the  first  two  years  of  Hastings'  governorship.^  The  king- 
dom of  Nepal  Ues  on  the  long  slope  between  the  Himalayas 
and  the  Eiver  Ganges.  Its  northern  boundaries  The  Nepal 
are  lost  in  the  eternal  snows  where  mountain  hes  ^^^^  1814-5. 
heaped  upon  mountain  in  stupendous  confusion ;  its  southern 
hmit  was  claimed  as  including  part  at  least  of  the  great 
agricultural  district  that  leads  down  to  the  sacred  river. 
The  original  population  of  mixed  Tibetan  cast  had  been 
subject  for  generations  to  the  warlike  tribes  of  Gurkhas  ; 
and  that  fiery  race  had  frequently  descended  on  Bengal  to 
plunder  the  weaker  Hindus.  Their  ravages  had  not  ceased 
when  Bengal  passed  under  the  rule  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany ;  and  although  they  were  often  divided  by  internal 
feuds,  the  Gurkhas  were  yet  strong  enough  to  conquer  their 
neighbours. 

Treaties  were  made  with  Nepal  by  the  British  in  1791  and 
1801  ;  both  were  broken  by  the  warriors  of  the  north. 
Wellesley  would  have  attacked  them,  but  was  prevented  by 
his  recall.  Barlow,  utterly  misunderstanding  their  predatory 
character,  proposed  mutual  concessions  as  a  basis  for  the 
dehmitation  of  the  frontier.  Long  negotiations  were  entered 
into,  but  the  raids  continued  ;  for  the  Gurkhas  treated  the 
mild  suggestions  of  the  Enghsh  Governor  as  a  confession  of 
impotence,  and  plundered  while  they  parleyed.  Minto  sent 
a  force  to  defend  the  frontier  in  1809,  and  to  expel  the 
intruders  ;  but  he  found  it  impossible  to  defend  a  frontier 
seven  hundred  miles  long. 

Hastings  took  a  more  effective  com'se.  By  decisive  action 
he  gave  the  Nepalis  the  alternative  of  peace  or  war ;  and 
when  they  returned  an  evasive  answer  he  at  once  proclaimed 
war,  on  1st  November  1814. 

In  the  Nepal  capital  of  Khatmandu,  there  were  two  opinions 
as  to  the  wisdom  of  fighting.  Those  who  knew  the  most  of 
the  previous  deeds  of  the  English  in  India,  declared  that 

*  Wright's  History  of  Nepal  contains  a  good  account  of  this  campaign. 


190  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

whereas  the  Gurkhas  had  formerly  only  chased  deer,  they 
must  now  prepare  to  fight  with  tigers  ;  but  these  were  opposed 
by  the  party  which  had  heard  of  our  failure  to  storm  the 
great  fortress  of  Bharatpur.  If,  it  was  said,  the  English  could 
not  overcome  the  puny  works  of  man,  how  then  should 
they  be  able  to  conquer  the  Nepalis,  who  dwelt  in  the  very 
fastnesses  of  God  ? 

The  latter  view  prevailed.  There  could  hardly  be  a  more 
convincing  illustration  of  the  loss  of  prestige  which  even  one 
isolated  check  to  European  arms  occasions  in  the  mind  of 
Asiatics. 

The  failure  of  Minto  to  protect  the  British  frontier  from 
Gurkha  raids  decided  Hastings  against  a  merely  defensive 
war ;  and  the  great  army  of  30,000  men  which  he  gathered 
together  was  instructed  to  separate  into  four  divisions,  and 
to  march  directly  against  the  capital  of  Nepal.  But  the 
country  was  excessively  difl&cult.  The  long  ascent  to  the 
mountains  was  impossible  in  the  rainy  season,  and  unhealthy 
during  the  other  months  of  the  year ;  communication  \^ath 
the  base  was  necessarily  insecure  ;  it  was,  moreover,  doubtful 
whether  sufficient  supphes  for  so  large  a  force  could  be  obtained 
from  a  generally  poor  soil.  The  whole  of  Nepal  was  rugged 
and  mountainous ;  the  passes  were  dangerous,  and  dotted 
with  forts  ;  blinding  snowstorms  at  times  swept  over  the 
land.  And  the  Gurkhas  were  a  brave,  impetuous,  and  clever 
foe,  who  well  understood  how  to  use  the  advantages  which 
nature  had  given  them. 

Small  headway  was  made  at  first,  for  the  British  com- 
manders, with  the  belief  in  sheer  courage  and  a  disregard  for 
scientific  warfare  that  is  typically  British,  attacked  the  Gurkha 
forts  with  men  and  not  with  cannon,  only  to  be  driven  back 
with  terrible  loss.  '  The  results  of  the  first  campaign,"  says 
the  miUtary  historian  of  the  war,  '  must  have  confounded  the 
calculations  of  the  noble  Marquis  and  every  one  else.  That 
portion  of  the  army  with  which  it  was  meant  to  make  an 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  191 

impression  on  the  enemy  in  the  seat  of  his  power  remained 
inactive,  while  the  skirmishers  on  the  left  flank,  which  could 
have  been  only  intended  to  produce  a  diversion,  succeeded 
to  an  extent  that  shook  the  Gurkha  on  his  throne.' 

A  definite  treaty  was  drawn  up  on  28th  November  1815  : 
but  the  Raja  refused  to  sign  it,  and  a  further  expedition  was 
sent  against  him.  This  time  he  gave  way,  ceding  the  frontier 
provinces  of  Kamaon  and  Gerwhal,  and  permitting  a  British 
agent  to  reside  in  his  capital. 

By  the  previous  treaty  of  1801  a  British  Residency  was 
also  to  have  been  established  in  Nepal.  But  the  minister 
whom  Wellesley  had  appointed  to  that  post  had  found  every 
obstacle  placed  in  his  way  even  before  he  reached  the  capital ; 
and  when  he  at  last  arrived  at  Khatmandu,  a  short  stay  con- 
vinced him  that  nothing  could  be  done  with  a  people  '  among 
whom  no  engagements,  however  solemnly  contracted,  were 
considered  binding  when  deviation  from  them '  seemed  to 
promise  a  temporary  advantage.  The  new  ambassador  was 
less  openly  obstructed  ;  but  he  soon  discovered  that  the  spot 
assigned  for  his  residence  was  a  barren  piece  of  land,  water- 
less and  very  unhealthy,  and  supposed  to  be  the  abode  of 
demons.  Science,  however,  circumvented  the  superstitious 
intentions  of  the  Nepalis  ;  and  in  a  few  years  cultivation  had 
made  the  grounds  of  the  British  Residency  one  of  the  best 
wooded  and  most  beautiful  spots  in  the  whole  valley. 

Thus  ended  the  first  of  the  series  of  wars  in  which  the  defence 
of  the  enormous  extent  of  the  northern  frontier  of  India  was 
to  engage  the  British.  But  the  Nepalis,  although  defeated, 
were  in  no  mood  for  tame  submission.  The  Raja  applied 
to  China,  of  which  empire  he  was  nominally  a  fief,  for  aid  in 
revenging  the  invasion  of  his  territories.^    He  received  the 

'  He  had  already  applied  for  Chinese  aid  in  1814,  concluding  his  appeal 
with  the  words,  '  Consider  if  you  abandon  your  dependents  that  the 
Englisli  Avill  soon  be  masters  of  Lhc^sa' — (Boulger's  Hintory  of  China). 
Ninety  years  elapsed  before  the  British  expedition  to  Tibet  proved  that 
there  was  some  truth  in  his  forecast. 


192  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

cold  reply  that  he  had  only  himself  to  blame  for  the  punish- 
ment that  had  been  inflicted  on  him.  Not  discomraged  by 
the  rebuff,  he  began  to  intrigue  with  the  native  princes  of 
India,  attempting  to  detach  from  the  British  those  who  had 
signed  treaties  of  aUiance  with  the  Governor-General,  and  to 
provoke  to  open  war  against  us  those  who  had  not  yet  come 
under  our  influence.  His  plots  were  discovered  before  they 
could  do  harm,  and  as  he  was  unwilling  himself  to  venture 
on  another  war,  there  was  no  further  trouble  with  Nepal  for 
many  years. 

But  the  treaty  with  Nepal  was  hardly  concluded  before  it 
became  necessary  to  check  an  enemy  in  India  itself.  The 
The  Third  third  and  last  round  in  the  struggle  with  the 
Maratha  Marathas  was  now  to  be  fought.  Ten  years  had 
^^'^  ^  •  proved  the  uselessness  of  the  concessions  of  Corn- 
wallis  and  the  rigid  economy  of  Barlow ;  the  pacification 
they  had  planned  had  brought  only  an  increase  of  disord'^r  in 
Central  and  Western  India.  The  older  chiefs  of  the  Marathas 
had  indeed  been  almost  crushed  by  Wellesley,  and  they 
never  thoroughly  recovered  from  his  attack.  Holkar  was 
for  a  time  intoxicated  and  insane ;  Sindhia  was  reduced 
to  beg  for  a  pension  from  his  late  foes  ;  the  Raja  of  Berar 
had  to  implore  British  assistance  in  securing  his  dominions  ; 
and  the  Gaekwar  of  Baroda  convinced  even  Barlow  that  his 
country  was  in  so  desperate  a  condition  that  it  would  have 
been  ruined  had  not  the  Governor-General  sanctioned  a 
departure  in  this  case  from  the  strict  policy  of  non- 
intervention. 

But  though  the  Maratha  princes  were  thus  impotent,  the 
hereditary  fighting  instinct  of  their  tribes  remained.  The 
neighbouring  countries  were  again  plundered  and  pillaged ;  and 
while  the  British  had  sworn  to  protect  Rajputana  from  the 
fury  of  the  Marathas,  the  several  states  which  are  included 
under  that  collective  name  were  abandoned  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  freebooters  whose  fighting  qualities  had  been  im- 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  193 

proved  by  a  long  war,  but  who  still  remained  at  bottom  mere 
looters. 

Against  such  men  the  Eajputs  were  powerless.  The  Peshwa 
would  not  interfere.  And  when  Holkar  amd  Sindhia  began 
once  more  to  recover  a  little  of  their  old  authority,  the  profits 
of  such  marauding  expeditions  were  far  too  valuable  to  be 
lightly  foregone.  They  detested  the  British.  They  were 
constantly  plotting  against  us ;  and  by  carrying  fire  and 
sword  unopposed  into  the  territories  of  those  allies  who  should 
have  been,  but  were  not,  protected  by  us,  they  considerably 
reduced  both  the  prestige  and  the  actual  power  of  the 
English  in  India. 

They  were  joined,  too,  by  other  independent  gangs  of 
robbers,  the  Pindaris  :  men  who  attacked  helpless  villages, 
but  ran  away  at  the  first  sight  of  a  soldier ;  fighting,  when 
fighting  was  absolutely  necessary,  on  horseback  and  armed 
with  rude  pikes,  swords,  clubs  and  sticks,  and  occasionally 
with  matchlocks.  Whole  communities  went  in  constant 
fear  of  these  wretches,  for  the  tortures  they  inflicted  were  of 
a  ghastly  character.  They  would  enclose  a  man's  head  in  a 
bag  of  ashes  and  dilst,  beating  his  face  until  he  was  suffocated  ; 
a  more  refined  cruelty  was  to  use  hot  ashes  and  powdered 
chillies.  At  other  times  their  captives  were  pinioned,  and 
either  boihng  oil  was  sprinkled  over  them,  or  straw  was  tied 
round  their  bodies  and  fired ;  while  infants  were  tossed  on 
the  sword,  and  their  mothers  violated  even  while  bemoaning 
the  fate  of  husband  or  child. 

The  doctrine  of  non-intervention  might  be,  and  was,  in 
fact,  pressed  far ;  but  no  man  born  in  a  civilised  country 
could  see  such  deeds  occur  and  not  abandon  all  his  theories 
until  these  savage  practices  had  been  put  down  \\ath  a  firm 
hand.  Minto  had  defended  the  British  possessions  in  India 
as  best  he  could,  consistently  with  the  instructions  he  had 
received  from  London,  although  he  realised  that  his  action 
was  at  the  utmost  only  palliative ;    Hastings  was  forced  to 

VOL.  II.  N 


194  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

sterner  action.  The  ravages  of  the  Marathas  and  the  Pin- 
daris  both  increased  during  the  Nepal  War  ;  and,  the  British 
troops  being  occupied  far  away  on  a  dangerous  campaign, 
their  demands  became  higher  and  more  insolent  in  tone,  it 
being  even  threatened  at  one  time  that  they  would  wreak 
their  wrath  on  Calcutta. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1815  they  plundered  three  hundred 
villages,  and  wounded,  tortured,  and  murdered  four  thousand 
persons  of  both  sexes,  and  of  all  ages  ;  and  as  their  descents 
were  made  without  warning  and  their  subsequent  departure 
was  as  rapid,  it  was  seldom  that  punishment  could  overtake 
them.  It  is  true  that  it  was  difficult  for  Hastings  to  make  a 
move.  No  help  could  be  expected  from  our  quondam  allies 
of  Rajputana,  for  they  were  in  a  state  of  absolute  incapacity. 
The  Raja  of  Jodhpur  pretended  idiocy,  and  resigned  his 
throne  to  a  dissolute  prince  who  was  eventually  assassinated. 
The  Raja  of  Udaipur  was  robbed  of  his  possessions  by 
military  adventurers.  The  Raja  of  Jaipur  was  a  slave  to  a 
Mohammedan  dancing-girl. 

And  while  Hastings  was  thus  driven  to  rely  solely  on  the 
British  power,  his  superiors  in  London  still  clung  fast  to  the 
fatal  idea  of  non-intervention.  On  28th  September  1815,  the 
Secret  Committee  of  the  East  India  Company  had  sent  him 
word  that  '  the  system  which  was  consolidated  at  the  close 
of  the  last  Maratha  War  should  be  maintained  with  as  little 
change  as  could  be  avoided  ' ;  while  Canning  warned  him 
that  the  British  Government  was  '  unwilling  to  incur  the 
risk  of  a  general  war  for  the  uncertain  purpose  of  extirpating 
the  Pindaris,'  and  advocated  the  '  judicious  management  of 
our  existing  relations  '  for  a  solution  of  every  difficulty.  Once 
again  was  shown  the  impossibihty  of  a  Council  in  London 
appreciating  accurately  the  situation  in  a  country  thousands 
of  miles  away  with  which  its  members  were  not  personally 
acquainted :  the  advices  sent  out  by  the  Secretary  of  State  were 
a  mere  bundle  of  useless  words,  while  Hastings  was  faced  by 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  195 

concrete  facts.  Had  the  Council  been  able  to  override  the 
Governor-General  on  this  matter,  there  is  no  question  that 
the  British  power  in  India  would  have  dechned  rapidly,  as 
the  knowledge  of  its  inabiUty  to  put  down  disorder  reached 
every  petty  raja  who  subsisted  by  preying  on  his  richer 
neighbours. 

But  Hastings  was  not  the  man  to  let  official  instructions 
stand  in  his  way  when  necessity  dictated  a  different  course.  A 
large  army  was  assembled,  and  in  April  1817  members  of  the 
Pindaris  and  many  other  insurgents  were  caught  and  defeated. 
The  most  important  of  these  gangs  were  broken  up  during 
the  next  few  months,  and  the  scattered  remnants  fled  to 
hiding  in  the  hills.  Meanwhile  the  Treaty  of  Bassein  was 
annulled,  and  the  Peshwa  was  coerced  into  accepting  a  new 
treaty  called  of  Poona,  on  15th  June  1817,  by  which,  instead  of 
himself  maintaining  troops  to  protect  the  Maratha  countries, 
he  was  forced  to  pay  the  British  for  their  protection  by  the 
cession  of  various  provinces ;  and,  in  addition,  he  was 
compelled  to  give  up  various  fortresses  and  to  agree  never 
again  to  interfere  in  the  external  pohtical  relations  of  his 
state.  The  latter  provision  was  hardly  worth  the  paper  on 
which  it  was  written  :  but  the  Peshwa  assented  reluctantly 
and  with  many  protests. 

At  the  same  time  alliances  were  concluded  with  other  more 
friendly  rulers,  which  were  useful  in  that  they  permitted  the 
Bengal  regiments  to  march  through  their  countries  without 
hindrance  ;  and,  on  14th  September  1817,  Hastings  assumed 
command  of  the  great  army  of  113,000  troops  and  300  cannon 
which  was  finally  to  subdue  the  Marathas.  Delayed  awhile 
by  the  monsoon,  which  rendered  the  rivers  too  swollen  to 
cross  and  the  roads  impracticable  for  marching,  and  hindered 
later  by  an  outbreak  of  spasmodic  cholera  which  killed  hundreds 
of  men  and  laid  Hastings  himself  low,  the  opportunity  was 
used  by  the  Peshwa  to  attempt  to  bribe  our  subsidiary  forces 
into  treachery  ;  and  on  the  departure  of  Mountstuart  Elphin- 


196  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEKSEAS 

stone,  our  envoy  at  Poona,  the  British  Residency  was  burnt 
down.  But  the  dupUcity  of  the  Peshwa  was  discovered,  as 
was  also  that  of  Sindhia,  whose  letters  of  intrigue  to  the  Raja 
of  Nepal  were  intercepted  ;  and  when  it  was  found  that  other 
Maratha  chiefs,  including  the  Raja  of  Nagpiir,  had  thrown 
in  their  lot  with  their  nominal  ruler,  it  became  evident  that 
the  whole  Maratha  confederacy  would  take  up  arms  against  the 
British. 

The  campaign  which  followed  is  among  the  most  brilhant 
in  our  mihtary  history.  The  resources  of  the  Marathas  were 
not  indeed  large,  either  in  the  number  of  their  men  or  in  the 
amount  of  available  munitions  of  war.  The  British  were 
incomparably  superior  in  both  ;  and  we  had  the  further  im- 
measurable advantage  that  a  large  part  of  our  army  con- 
sisted of  Europeans,  while  our  native  regiments  were  led  by 
European  officers.  But  the  Marathas  were  operating  in  their 
own  country,  and  they  were  assisted  by  their  own  people. 
The  leaders  had  in  their  retinue  a  considerable  number  of 
A-rab  mercenaries,  who  fought  desperately  on  every  occasion. 
And  they  had  in  their  power  the  small  British  settlement  at 
each  court,  and  the  few  British  traders  in  each  district,  whose 
situation  at  this  time  became  extremely  dangerous.  In  the 
case  of  Nagpur,  for  instance,  it  was  only  a  sudden  sally,  con- 
trary to  orders  on  the  part  of  Captain  Fitzgerald,  which  broke 
up  the  Maratha  force  that  was  about  to  attack  the  British 
Residency  ;  even  then  it  was  not  until  a  branch  of  the  main 
army  was  sent  that  there  was  any  real  security. 

But  one  by  one  the  chiefs  were  defeated  :  the  Peshwa  was 
chased  relentlessly  as  he  fled  from  place  to  place,  tracked  all 
over  the  country  by  the  dead  and  dying  cattle  he  left  on  the 
road ;  and  at  length  he  was  forced  to  surrender,  protesting 
that  he  had  never  intended  to  fight.  He  was  given  a  Hberal 
pension,  but  deprived  of  all  his  powers  ;  and  with  his  capture 
the  main  issue  of  the  war  was  brought  to  a  successful  end. 

But  the  military  operations  which  Hastings  had  planned 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  197 

were  still  far  from  being  accomplished.  He  had  determined 
that  this  time  nothing  short  of  complete  and  absolute  conquest 
was  of  any  avail ;  there  were  to  be  no  concessions  to  soothe 
wounded  vanity,  no  paper  treaties  to  be  broken  as  soon  as 
he  had  returned  to  Calcutta,  no  unconquered  district  which 
might  serve  as  a  centre  for  future  rebeUion  when  the  army 
was  withdrawn.  The  remains  of  the  Pindaris  were  pursued 
to  their  obscure  haunts,  and  captured ;  it  was  found  that 
their  great  fear  was  lest  they  should  be  sent  as  prisoners  to 
Europe,  by  which  place  they  understood  Calcutta.  And  the 
last  leaders  of  the  Marathas  were  pursued  to  those  savage 
districts  where,  bereft  of  their  following,  they  had  taken  refuge 
in  the  wild  jungle- covered  hills,  among  those  dense  unhealthy 
thickets  in  which  the  still  uncivilised  aboriginal  inhabitants 
of  India  lurked  hopelessly,  and  obtained  a  miserable  subsist- 
ence by  living  on  roots  and  herbs.  There  the  Maratha  chiefs 
had  made  common  cause  with  the  savages,  and  given  them 
licence  to  plunder  their  late  dominions.  Had  these  not  been 
suppressed,  they  would  have  become  a  permanent  danger ; 
but,  in  1819,  a  concerted  attack  was  made  on  the  hills,  and  the 
last  hiding-places  of  our  conquered  foes  were  destroyed. 

In  these  stern  punitive  measures,  which  lasted  for  months 
after  the  regular  fighting  was  finished,  there  was  no  question 
of  generosity  to  a  fallen  enemy.  It  was  the  pacification  of 
Western  India  that  Hastings  was  striving  for,  and  it  was  that 
which  he  accomplished.  In  subsequent  years,  there  were  occa- 
sional sporadic  raids  by  those  few  Pindaris  whose  retreats 
had  remained  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  the  keenest  of  scouts  ; 
but  their  name  had  ceased  to  inspire  terror.  The  greater 
part  of  the  Maratha  territories  was  annexed  to  British 
India  ;  but  some  few  provinces  were  given  back  to  Holkar 
and  Sindhia.  Those  chiefs  had  now,  however,  hardly  even 
the  shadow  of  their  former  power;  and  their  intrigues  were 
thenceforward  as  harmless  as  their  animosity. 

The  whole  fabric    of    the  Maratha  confederacy  had  now 


198  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

utterly  collapsed.  But  settlement  after  a  war  of  such  magni- 
tude was  a  matter  of  some  difficulty,  for  it  afiected  far  more 
than  the  conquered  country,  large  as  it  was.  So  great  a 
change  in  the  poHtical  map  of  India  touched  the  neighbour- 
ing states  of  Rajputana  and  Haidarabad  as  directly  as 
the  proper  territories  of  the  East  India  Company. 

But  Hastings  proved  a  great  statesman  as  well  as  an  able 
soldier.  Some  fifty  thousand  square  miles  of  country  were 
brought  imder  British  rule,  and  four  million  subjects  were 
thereby  added  to  the  British  Empire.  A  detailed  plan  was 
laid  down  for  the  administration  of  this  great  expanse  of 
territory.  The  people  were  to  be  protected  from  that  foul 
parasite,  the  revenue  farmer.  No  new  taxes  were  to  be  im- 
posed ;  neither  were  any  old  ones  to  be  aboHshed,  unless 
they  were  obviously  unjust ;  but  the  existing  taxes  were  to 
be  levied  according  to  the  actual  cultivation  of  the  land,  and 
not  at  the  caprice  of  a  zamindar.  Further,  no  legal  innova- 
tions were  to  be  introduced  :  natives  were  to  continue  to 
administer  the  civil  law,  while  the  criminal  law  passed  to 
British  judges. 

Elsewhere  in  the  conquered  countries,  when  annexation 
was  considered  inadvisable,  the  territory  was  either  ceded  to 
the  Gaekwar  of  Baroda  or  the  Nizam  of  Haidarabad,  in 
exchange  for  other  of  their  provinces  which  gave  cohesion 
to  the  British  possessions ;  or  it  was  restored  to  the 
original  native  sovereigns,  and  a  diplomatic  agent  established 
at  each  of  their  courts.  Treaties  of  alliance  were  signed  with  all 
of  the  Maratha  chiefs  whom  Hastings  still  permitted  to  rule  ; 
and  the  princes  of  Rajputana  hkewise  sought  his  friendship. 

In  every  case,  the  substance  of  the  agreement  was  the  same. 
The  native  promised  his  allegiance,  and  miUtary  service  when 
required;  the  British  guaranteed  the  integrity  of  his  dominions, 
and  at  the  same  time  stipulated  that  we  should  refrain  from 
intervention  in  the  internal  affairs  of  such  states. 

In  the  main  the  agreements  were  faithfully  kept  on  both 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  199 

sides.  It  was,  however,  impossible  in  practice  for  the  British 
agent  at  a  native  court  to  abstain  from  intervention  in  the 
not  infrequent  case  of  the  raja  being  hopelessly  incompetent ; 
still  less  could  he  maintain  a  neutral  attitude  when,  as  often 
happened,  his  advice  was  directly  asked.  In  this  respect  the 
British  did  not  adhere  strictly  to  the  treaties  ;  the  general 
good  of  the  state  was  of  more  importance  than  the  personal 
interest  of  its  ruler  and  a  pedantic  observance  of  the  letter 
of  the  agreement.  As  regards  the  native  princes  themselves, 
no  power  on  earth,  and  no  oath,  however  solemn,  would  have 
restrained  some  of  them  from  the  pleasantly  dangerous  game 
of  intrigue ;  but  there  were  many  others  who  were  glad  of 
the  British  protection  and  the  consequent  security  of  their 
dominions,  and  who  therefore  abode  honourably  by  the  treaty 
and  became  loyal  fiefs  of  the  empire. 

The  great  menace  to  the  peace  of  India  being  thus  averted 
by  the  destruction  of  the  Maratha  power,  Hastings  was  free 
to  turn  his  attention  to  the  administration  of  the  British 
provinces.  Legal  reform  and  the  establishment  of  an  educa- 
tional system  occupied  much  of  his  time  during  his  last  years 
in  India.  But  he  had  now  exceeded  the  average  length  of 
office  of  a  Governor-General ;  and  he  had  good  reason  to 
beheve  that  the  directors  of  the  East  India  Company  did  not 
approve  of  his  vigorous  poHcy,  triumphantly  successful 
though  it  had  been. 

He  was  indeed  thanked  by  his  employers  for  his  services, 
and  his  proffered  resignation  was  refused.  But  in  common 
decency  they  could  not  avoid  the  former  tribute  ;  as  regards 
the  latter,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  they  began  to  look  out 
for  a  successor,  and  that  their  decision  eventually  fell  on 
George  Canning. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  choice  was  a  wise  one. 
Canning  was  a  brilliant  orator  ;  but  oratory  in  the  House  of 
Commons  is  no  qualification  for  a  Governor-General  of  India. 
His  talents,  great  as  they  were  in  his  own  sphere  of  parlia- 


200  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

mentary  life,  were  by  no  means  necessarily  suited  to  the 
control  of  an  oriental  state  ;  and  this  Canning  himself  seems 
to  have  recognised.  The  directors  were  probably  influenced 
in  their  selection  by  the  fact  that  he  had  discouraged  the 
forward  policy  of  Hastings,  and  his  acceptance  of  the  post 
would  therefore  have  seemed  to  promise  them  some  years  of 
peaceful  and  profitable  commerce,  undisturbed  by  the  alarms 
and  expenses  of  punitive  expeditions,  and  the  enlargement 
of  their  already  large  dominions.  But  the  chances  of  home 
politics  determined  Canning  to  remain  in  England  ;  and  when 
the  Marquis  of  Hastings  sailed  from  Calcutta,  on  1st  January 
1823,  it  was  to  Lord  Amherst  that  the  reins  of  government 
were  offered. 

The  new  ruler  arrived  in  August  of  the  same  year ;  and 
he  had  hardly  called  his  first  Council  when  war  again  broke 
Amherst,  out.  This  time,  however,  the  conflict  was  not 
1823.  [yi  India  proper ;    Burma  and  Assam  were  the 

countries  affected,  and  the  sustained  military  operations 
which  ensued  were  the  cause  of  much  surprise  and  regret  to 
Amherst,  who  had  hoped  that  the  campaigns  of  Hastings  had 
secured  a  long  period  of  peace  to  India.^  And  even  when 
the  Burmese  war  was  drawing  to  a  close,  the  effect  it  had  had 
in  disturbing  the  great  settlement  of  India  that  was  made 
by  Hastings,  forced  Amherst  to  engage  in  another  punitive 
campaign  against  an  old  enemy  in  the  middle  of  the  peninsula. 

It  is  a  truism  that  the  least  check  to  a  European  army  in 
Asia  at  once  fosters  a  whole  crop  of  native  intrigue  and  sedi- 
tion. In  the  Burmese  War,  indeed,  the  British  had  suffered 
no  disaster.  But  the  struggle  was  unusually  lengthy ;  and 
to  those  who  wished  to  believe  that  the  British  had  suffered 
defeat,  it  was  not  difficult  to  misinterpret  the  prolonged 
absence  of  our  troops  on  the  Irawadi  River. 

Forthwith  an  extraordinary  change  came  over  the  attitude 
of  our  native  allies.     Every  item  of  news  that  could  by  any 
1  For  the  history  of  this  war,  see  vol.  viii. 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  201 

possibility  be  constraed  as  a  reverse  was  eagerly  seized  upon 
and  exaggerated.  A  general  rumour  spread  from  court  to 
court  that  we  should  have  to  retire  from  Central  India  owing 
to  the  drain  on  our  resources.  Metcalfe,  a  member  of  the 
Supreme  Council  of  Calcutta,  stated  that  '  the  Burmese  War 
produced  an  extraordinary  sensation  all  over  India,  amount- 
ing to  an  expectation  of  our  immediate  downfall.' 

Nor  was  the  disaffection  merely  passive.  The  great  and 
growing  confederacy  of  the  Sikhs,  whose  dominions  in  the 
Punjab  now  adjoined  the  British  provinces,  assumed  an  over- 
bearing tone.  The  last  of  the  Pindari  and  Maratha  outlaws 
ventured  forth  from  their  obscure  hiding-places,  scenting  in 
the  presumed  weakness  of  the  dominant  power  an  opportunity 
for  renewed  plunder.  And  in  the  states  administered  under 
British  supervision  there  was  general  discontent. 

This  latter  sentiment  was  not,  indeed,  without  foundation. 
It  is  true  that  our  protection  had  benefited  the  inhabitants. 
Even  the  miserable  country  of  Oudh  was  less  miserable  than 
before  ;  for  it  was  reported  that  a  body  of  irregular  horse 
marching  through  that  land  in  1824  could  find  no  spot  on 
which  to  encamp  without  injuring  the  crops ;  while  in  the 
following  year  travellers  and  officers  alike  called  it  a  perfect 
garden.  Everywhere  agriculture  had  improved.  But  both 
our  rule  and  our  protection  had  brought  disadvantages  and 
abuses  in  their  train.  If  there  was  now  more  land  under 
cultivation,  there  was  more  grain  produced  than  before  ;  and 
the  price  of  grain  had  naturally  fallen  as  the  supply  increased. 
Some  grumbling  ensued  thereon ;  a  worse  consequence  was 
that  the  revenue  system,  which  had  been  specially  safeguarded 
to  prevent  tyranny,  was  inelastic  in  its  operation,  and  a 
further  unforeseen  cause  had  made  it  oppressive. 

The  assessment  was  properly  calculated  on  the  price  of 
grain.  But  it  had  been  calculated  when  that  price  was 
inflated  by  the  presence  of  a  large  military  force ;  as  soon 
as  the  army  was  withdrawn  the  price  sank  :  and  while  there 


202  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

was  less  demand,  there  was  a  larger  supply.  From  a  double 
reason  the  price  therefore  fell ;  but  the  assessment  remained 
the  same. 

And  to  these  grounds  for  discontent  there  was  added 
another  more  potent,  because  more  permanent  factor.  The 
British  had  given  peace,  security,  and  the  beginnings  of  com- 
parative prosperity  to  India.  But  for  that  very  reason,  para- 
doxical as  it  may  appear  at  first  sight,  there  was  dissatis- 
faction. A  not  inconsiderable  number  of  roving  marauders 
found  their  occupation  gone ;  and  the  paths  of  peaceful 
industry  were  utterly  distastefid  to  them.  The  native  princes 
found  their  treasury  better  suppHed ;  but  in  the  opinion  of 
many  this  did  not  compensate  for  the  loss  of  liberty  and  the 
dehghts  of  waging  private  war  against  their  neighbours. 
And  the  subjects  of  those  princes,  who  in  truth  were  as  yet 
the  least  important  consideration,  forgot,  as  it  is  natural  to 
forget,  the  woes  of  the  past  in  the  woes  of  the  present.  They 
knew  that  taxation  was  oppressive ;  they  did  not  remember 
that  it  had  been  extortionate.  They  knew  that  the  price  of 
grain  had  fallen,  and  that  they  had  suffered  because  it  had 
fallen  ;  they  forgot  that  previously  they  had  often  seen  the 
whole  of  their  crops  carried  off  without  hope  of  pa5mient  or 
redress.  They  remembered  the  few  virtues  of  the  older 
system,  and  forgot  its  vices ;  they  saw  distinctly  the  vices 
of  the  new  system,  and  were  oblivious  of  its  virtues. 

Matters  came  to  a  crisis  when  a  dispute  as  to  the  succes- 
sion of  the  throne  at  Bharatpur  called  for  British  interven- 
The  storm  of  ^^^^-  ^^  ^^^  Amherst  hesitated  ;  but  Comber- 
Bharatpur,  more,  an  ofl&cer  who  had  served  against  Napoleon 
^*    *  in  Spain,   undertook  to  reduce  that  celebrated 

fortress.  It  was  a  dangerous  moment  for  the  English.  They 
had  abeady  failed  once  before  Bharatpur ;  and  their  failure 
had  not  been  forgotten  by  the  natives.  If  they  failed  again 
they  would  immediately  have  to  face  the  probability,  indeed, 
almost  the  certainty,  that  every  subsidiary  state  from  one 


THE  ENGLISH  ADVANCE  IN  INDIA  203 

end  of  India  to  the  other  would  repudiate  its  alliance,  and 
engage  in  open  rebellion  ;  and  it  was  known  that  the  neigh- 
bouring Rajput  and  Maratha  princes  were  secretly  encourag- 
ing the  usurping  Raja  of  Bharatpur. 

The  fortress  was  a  formidable  one,  perhaps  the  most  formid- 
able of  any  in  India.  Its  defences  covered  five  miles  ;  it  was 
protected  by  thick  and  lofty  walls  of  dried  clay  which  rose 
from  the  edge  of  a  broad  and  deep  ditch  ;  it  was  flanked  by 
thirty-five  tower-bastions,  and  strengthened  by  the  outworks 
of  nine  gateways.  High  above  the  walls  towered  the  bastions 
of  the  citadel,  commanding  the  town  of  Bharatpur,  the  outer 
ramparts,  and  the  surrounding  plain  ;  and  the  citadel  itself 
was  defended  by  a  ditch  fifty  yards  broad,  fifty-nine  feet  deep, 
and  filled  with  water, 

A  regular  siege  was  impossible  ;  Bharatpur  could  only  be 
captured  by  storm.  For  two  whole  months  it  was  bombarded 
without  tangible  results  ;  but  at  length  the  walls  began  to 
crumble  beneath  the  heavy  fire  of  the  British  guns.  Even 
then  they  seemed  hardly  less  steep  and  inaccessible  than  before. 
But  meanwhile  the  trenches  of  the  attacking  army  had  been 
advanced  ;  several  mines  had  been  sprung  ;  and  the  explosion 
of  an  enormous  charge  of  ten  thousand  pounds  of  gunpowder 
in  the  chief  mine,  on  18th  January  1826,  shook  the  citadel  to 
its  foundation  and  effected  a  practicable  breach. 

The  British  immediately  stormed  the  place.  They  were 
opposed  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and  the  Raja's  troops 
fought  with  magnificent  bravery,  disputing  every  foot  of 
the  advance.  If  the  casualty  hst  is  correct,  it  conveys  an 
idea  of  their  devotion  ;  for  no  fewer  than  8000  of  the  enemy 
were  killed  and  6000  wounded.     The  British  loss  was  600. 

On  the  following  day  the  legitimate  Raja  of  Bharatpur  was 
restored  to  the  throne  of  his  ancestors  ;  and  the  fortress  was 
dismantled.  Its  capture  at  once  put  an  end  to  the  incipient 
conspiracies  of  which  the  native  courts  had  been  full ;  for 
the  fall  of  Bharatpur  made  it  evident  to  the  meanest  intelli- 


204  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

gence  that  the  Burmese  War  had  not  weakened  the  power  of 
the  British  in  India. 

The  moral  effect  was  deep  and  lasting.  Now  at  length  pro- 
found peace  reigned  throughout  India  ;  nor  could  any  cloud 
Peace  and  of  future  war  be  discerned  on  the  clear  horizon. 
Reform.  pgr  twelve  years  the  hand  of  the  conqueror  was 
utterly  stayed,  while  the  conquered  abode  in  subjection  ;  the 
age  of  pacific  reform,  for  which  every  Anglo-Indian  statesman 
had  longed,  but  hitherto  longed  in  vain,  had  come. 

And  with  the  coming  of  that  age  a  new  era  opened  out  for 
British  India  ;  an  era  which,  though  chequered  by  many 
great  and  terrible  wars,  though  marked  by  a  large  extension 
of  the  already  large  territories  of  England  in  the  East,  was 
essentially  one  of  peaceful  development  and  ordered  change. 

The  first  period  of  British  rule  in  India,  which  was  a  suc- 
cession of  almost  unbroken  conquests,  was  practically  at  an 
end  when  the  victories  of  Hastings  and  Amherst  were  com- 
pleted by  the  storm  of  Bharatpur. 

The  second  period,  which  began  with  the  administration 
of  Bentinck  in  1828,  was  not  the  less  glorious  or  daring  because 
the  British  now  attempted  to  substitute  moral  for  military 
conquest,  because  they  endeavoured  to  impose  the  philo- 
sophic ideas,  the  culture,  and  the  principles  of  modern  Europe 
on  the  ancient  and  ah  en  civihsations  of  India,  and  thus  to 
transplant  the  restless  soul  of  the  West  into  the  tranquil 
body  of  the  East. 

The  third  period  began  when  the  first  unexpected  results 
of  that  courageous  experiment  were  visible  in  the  early  years 
of  the  twentieth  century. 


Book   VIII 

THE   END   OF   THE   WOELD-STRUGGLE : 
1789-1815 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  UNITED  KINGDOM 

While  Britain  was  conquering  an  empire  in  India,  she  was 
losing  another  empire  in  America.  While  she  was  subdu- 
ing an  alien  race  in  the  Orient,  her  own  children  The  Revolt 
were  repudiating  her  dominion  in  the  Occident ;  America 
and  at  the  very  moment  when  soldiers  and  states-  1776. 
men  were  advancing  her  flag  in  the  tropics  of  Asia,  the  same 
flag  was  being  torn  down  and  trampled  underfoot  by  the 
descendants  of  Englishmen  on  the  other  side  of  the  world 
in  the  Imperial  Civil  War.  But  the  western  colonies  had 
hardly  been  lost  when  the  inexhaustible  vitality  of  Britain 
was  shown  in  the  acquisition  of  fresh  territories  for  the  settle- 
ment of  her  people  in  Australia  and  South  Africa  ;  and  the 
nation  which  was  believed  to  be  ruined  by  the  disasters  of  the 
American  War  rose  to  a  greater  height  than  ever  during 
the  terrific  contest  with  Napoleon  in  every  quarter  of  the 
globe. 

That  contest  was  waged  for  the  mastery  of  Europe  and  the 
outer  world ;  and  it  ended,  as  the  previous  contest  of  the 
Seven  Years'  War  had  ended,  in  the  triumph  of  The  Revoiu- 
Britain  as  the  leading  maritime  and  colonising  tionaryAge. 
power  of  the  earth.    The  age  during  which  this  struggle  took 

205 


206  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

place  was  one  in  which  commerce  increased  enormously, 
under  the  natural  stimulus  of  mechanical  inventions  and 
improvements ;  even  the  wars  produced  their  efiect, 
as  they  forced  up  both  prices  and  production.  Science  and 
discovery  likewise  made  notable  advances ;  but  the  real 
characteristic  which  distinguished  this  period  from  its  pre- 
decessors in  history  was  the  revolutionary  spirit  that  stamped 
its  mark  on  every  phase  of  life.  Everywhere  throughout 
the  West  men  destroyed  and  reconstructed  their  ideas  and 
their  political  theories  with  equal  zeal ;  everywhere  they 
threw  ofi  the  allegiance  which  their  fathers  had  owed  to 
governments  that  no  longer  satisfied  their  views  ;  authority 
was  disregarded  in  the  pursuit  of  freedom,  and  the  new 
doctrine  of  the  Eights  of  Man  displaced  the  old  doctrine 
of  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings. 

The  American  colonies  of  Britain  led  the  way  of  revolu- 
tion, in  a  rebellion  against  the  tyranny  of  a  government  whose 
most  arbitrary  acts  would  never  have  provoked  a  murmur 
in  any  other  country  except  England.  The  monarchs  of 
France  and  Spain,  unwilhng  to  lose  the  opportunity  of  striking 
a  blow  against  their  old  enemy  Britain,  assisted  the  Americans 
to  obtain  poUtical  independence ;  and  within  a  few  years 
the  lesson  of  the  American  revolution  had  recoiled  unex- 
pectedly on  their  own  heads.  The  King  of  France  was 
deposed  and  executed  during  a  revolution  which  surpassed 
the  American  rebelhon  in  as  great  a  degree  as  the  power  and 
population  of  France  surpassed  the  power  and  population 
of  British  America.  And  the  King  of  Spain,  who  had  en- 
couraged the  colonies  of  another  nation  to  rebel,  saw  his  own 
colonies  in  South  America  throw  ofi  their  allegiance  to  Spain 
one  by  one,  in  pursuit  of  the  same  independent  and  republican 
ideal  that  had  animated  the  citizens  of  Boston  and 
Connecticut. 

The  revolt  of  British  America  split  an  empire  in  twain  and 
founded  a  new  nation  on  the  ruins  of  a  civil  war.     The  revolt 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        207 

of  Latin  America  likewise  split  an  empire ;  but  the  Spanish 
colonies  were  possessed  of  none  of  the  genius  for  political 
organisation  which  distinguished  the  founders  of  the  northern 
repubhc,  and  the  divided  states  of  Spanish  South  America 
remain  an  unhappy  example  of  the  fate  that  would  have 
overtaken  the  United  States  without  the  binding  mortar 
of  a  Federal  Constitution  whose  every  word  was  respected 
by  men  to  whom  constitutional  government  was  almost  a 
religion. 

The  revolutionary  impulse  of  France  owed  something  to 
the  teaching  of  English  poHtical  philosophers,  and  some- 
thing also  to  the  example  of  the  English  rebels  in  America. 
But  neither  England  nor  America  had  ever  known  the  evils  to 
which  France  had  been  subject ;  and  neither  England  nor 
America  followed  the  path  of  revolt  with  such  zealous  fervour 
of  destruction  and  reconstruction  as  the  French. 

The  autocratic  centralising  poUcy  that  was  introduced  in 
France  under  Louis  xi.  had  been  rudely  interrupted  by  the 
Renascence  and  the  Reformation ;  but  it  was  The  French 
continued  by  Richeheu  and  carried  to  its  logical  Revolution, 
conclusion  by  Mazarin  and  Louis  xiv.  For  a  time  it  seemed 
supremely  successful,  as  France  rose  to  the  position  of  the 
leading  mihtary  power  in  Europe,  and  became  in  some  sense 
the  leading  power  of  the  outer  world  as  well.  In  England, 
on  the  contrary,  a  political  freedom  had  been  attained  that 
was  always  unknown  in  France  ;  the  great  civil  struggles 
between  the  Stuarts  and  the  nobihty  and  people  reduced 
the  weight  of  the  British  Crown,  while  the  monarchs  of 
France  were  concentrating  the  whole  rule  of  their  kingdom 
in  their  own  hands.  And  the  cold,  hard,  unaesthetic  puri- 
tanism  that  now  counted  for  much  in  the  poHtical  and  social 
hfe  of  England,  and  at  times  even  turned  the  scales  in  the 
decision  of  pubhc  afiairs,  had  no  part  nor  lot  in  the  growth 
of  the  French  intellect.  The  puritan  of  England  was  self- 
assertive  in  the  presence  of  an  earthly  autocrat,  where  the 


208  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

Frenchman  as  yet  was  mute ;  he  was  self-repressive  before 
the  authority  of  heavenly  commands,  where  the  Frenchman 
was  reaching  forward  to  throw  ofE  reverence  to  Bible,  Church, 
and  religion  altogether. 

But  when  Louis  xiv,  died  in  1715  a  gradual  change  came 
ovBr  the  haughty  nation  that  had  despised  its  island  neigh- 
bours across  the  Channel.  The  great  monarch  left  an  im- 
poverished kingdom  and  a  hungry  peasantry  as  a  monument  of 
his  fifty  years'  reign.  The  name  of  France,  which  had  been 
revered  throughout  Europe  as  that  of  the  leader  of  civilisa- 
tion and  culture,  the  centre  of  the  arts,  the  seat  of  elegance, 
the  chosen  home  of  the  muses,  was  indeed  still  so  revered ; 
but  it  was  coupled  with  denunciations  of  the  cruelty  and 
faithlessness  that  had  desolated  the  Palatinate,  seized  Strass- 
burg  in  a  time  of  profound  peace,  sown  discord  among  the 
princes  of  the  German  Empire,  unblushingly  broken  the  most 
solemn  treaties,  revoked  the  edicts  of  rehgious  toleration, 
and  driven  forth  the  Huguenots  to  starve  or  beg  in  foreign 
lands. 

It  was  at  such  a  time  that  some  young  Frenchmen  came 
to  England,  and  quickly  drank  in  the  spirit  of  liberty  and 
free  inquiry  that  was  instinct  in  the  nation.  Despite  the 
late  struggle  with  the  Stuarts,  the  country  was  prosperous. 
Despite  the  laws  against  the  Nonconformists,  toleration  in 
religious  matters  was  general.  The  press  was  seldom  shackled. 
The  most  daring  treatise  on  pohtics,  on  theology,  on  philosophy, 
might  be  published  without  fear.  In  France  an  unfortunate 
author  was  thrown  into  the  Bastille,  and  his  work  seized  as 
treasonable  or  heretical  if  it  displeased  the  officials  of  the 
State  or  Church  ;  in  England  the  worst  punishment  that  could 
befall  the  most  wretched  scribbler  was  to  starve  in  Grub 
Street,  or  to  achieve  immortahty  in  the  biting  couplets  of  the 
Dunciad.  Corrupt  and  factious  as  was  the  public  life  of  the 
age,  it  was  at  least  better  than  the  deathlike  silence  that 
reigned  across  the  Channel ;    and  the  English  constitutional 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        209 

system  moved  the  admiration  of  every  French  writer  from 
Voltaire  and  Montesquieu  to  Benjamin  Constant. 

The  new  philosophers  of  France  quickly  assimilated  the 
works  of  Bacon,  Hobbes,  Newton,  and  Locke,  and  inter- 
preted them  to  their  countrymen,  and  thence  to  the  world 
at  large.  But  at  first  even  the  bolder  thinkers  only  attacked 
the  Church  in  France.  The  monarchy  remained  untouched. 
Opinion,  therefore,  to  that  extent  became  free.  Philo- 
sophical and  scientific  discussions  were  soon  the  fashion  in 
Paris.  Every  aristocrat  had  a  smile  for  the  man  of  letters ; 
every  great  lady's  drawing-room  was  filled  with  a  coterie  of 
brilhant  writers,  this  with  his  sarcasm  on  the  theologians, 
that  with  his  epigram  on  the  Pope.  The  highborn  laughed 
and  applauded  ;  their  own  order  was  not  yet  menaced. 

But  from  the  abuse  of  power  by  the  priests  to  the  abuse  of 
power  by  the  patricians  was  but  a  step.  The  first  genera- 
tion that  struck  at  the  clergy  was  succeeded  by  a  second 
that  struck  at  the  crown  ;  and  the  hour  was  favourable  to 
an  attack  on  the  monarchy.  France  had  been  humbled  at 
home  and  abroad.  Her  debts,  her  poverty,  and  her  ambition 
had  increased.  The  rule  which  Louis  xiv.  had  always  exercised 
with  a  certain  magnificence  was  resigned  by  his  grandson  to  a 
favourite  mistress.  A  vague  but  deep  discontent  sprang  up 
among  the  common  people.  They  had  long  borne,  with  a 
patience  not  at  all  in  accordance  with  our  engrained  ideas 
of  the  Galhc  character,  extortion,  exaction,  and  oppression. 
Their  scanty  earnings  had  been  heavily  taxed  by  the  Bang, 
the  nobles,  and  the  priests.  Their  sons  had  been  sent  to 
fight  in  Flanders,  in  Germany,  in  Spain,  in  America.  At 
the  least  sign  of  a  popular  movement  the  leaders  were  flung 
into  prison.  Under  the  insidious  principle  of  autocratic 
centralisation — a  centralisation  at  once  mean  and  extra- 
vagant, rotten  and  splendid — a  brave  high-spirited  nation 
was  being  drained  of  its  vitality,  and  sapped  of  its  strength. 

But  revolt  came  before  it  was  too  late.     Travellers  and 

VOL.  II.  o 


210  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEESEAS 

students  alike  had  for  many  years  noticed  the  tendency  to 
rise  against  oppression.  Chesterfield  wrote  in  1753 :  '  All 
the  symptoms  I  have  ever  met  with  in  history  previous  to 
great  changes  and  revolutions  in  government  now  exist,  and 
daily  increase  in  France.'  Gibbon  elucidated  a  point  of 
Roman  history  from  the  disturbances  he  saw  around  him. 
What  was  visible  to  the  stranger  within  the  gates  should  not 
have  been  hidden  from  the  French  Government.  But  that 
Government  was  moribund.  It  could  neither  go  honestly 
forward  on  the  road  of  conciliation,  nor  courageously  back- 
ward to  the  time-honoured  repression.  Like  the  lukewarm 
church  cursed  by  the  prophet  of  the  Apocalypse,  it  was  neither 
hot  nor  cold  ;  and  its  fate  was  the  same. 

Unfortunately  the  wilder  and  more  terrifying  symptoms 
that  not  only  the  nineteenth  century  but  our  own  times  have 
known  too  well  found  also  their  chief  inspiration,  if  not  alto- 
gether their  origin,  in  the  French  Revolution.  While  the 
fair  hopes  of  freedom  dawned  in  the  movement  that  took 
for  its  motto  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity ;  while  the 
generous  sentiment  of  friendship  with  other  nations  broke  out 
in  the  declaration  that '  all  peoples  are  our  alhes  ' ;  the  baser 
sort  saw  their  opportunity  in  the  carnage,  the  terror,  the  con- 
fiscation. Organised  anarchy  raised  her  poisonous  head.  If 
the  true  reformers  founded  their  resistance  on  the  wishes  of 
the  people,  the  scum  realised  their  profit  in  the  rule  of  the  mob. 
The  vengeance  that  wreaks  itself  on  any  victim,  disdaining 
justice  and  despising  mercy,  set  its  hideous  example  in  the 
fanaticism  of  those  who  brought  about  the  Reign  of  Terror ; 
and  the  terror  did  not  cease  until  it  had  sent  over  two  thousand 
victims  to  the  guillotine.  But  with  the  excesses  of  that  dread 
tribunal,  which  slaughtered  innocent  victims  at  the  rate  of 
fifty  or  a  hundred  in  a  day  by  a  process  of  judicial  murder, 
France  purged  itself  of  the  Revolution.  It  was  the  blood- 
thirstiness  of  men  like  Robespierre  and  Fouquier-Tinville 
that  hurried  on  the  reaction  ;    but  the  real    origin  of    the 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        211 

Terrorists    must    be    sought    in    the   previous    century   of 
misrule. 

The  spirit  of  revolt  that  overturned  the  traditions  of  cen- 
turies in  France  was  also  manifesting  itself  in  Britain,  but 
in  a  far  more  orderly  manner.  The  constitution  its  Effect 
was  not  abohshed ;  the  throne  was  strong  enough  °^  Britain, 
to  survive  the  temporary  insanity  of  its  occupant ;  the  Church 
passed  unmenaced  through  a  period  of  inaction.  But  many 
of  the  ancient  shibboleths  were  cast  away,  as  the  rising 
industriahsm  of  the  time  forced  the  community  into  fresh 
methods  of  hfe  ;  and  if  the  problems  that  were  thus  solved 
were  succeeded  immediately  by  others  as  grave,  there  was  at 
least  no  unwilhngness  to  tackle  them  as  soon  as  they  were 
perceived. 

In  hterature  the  new  school  that  was  inspired  by  the  French 
Revolution,  which  later  gave  birth  to  the  Lakists,  was  energetic 
in  its  desire  to  shake  off  the  fetters  of  rule  and  precedent  that 
had  bound  the  writers  of  the  early  eighteenth  century.  But 
the  impulse  lay  in  the  time,  and  not  in  the  men  alone  ;  for 
while  Coleridge,  Wordsworth,  and  Shelley  were  fired  by  the 
doctrines  of  freedom,  Cowper  in  his  quiet  retreat  at  Olney  had 
already  felt  the  need  before  them  ;  and  Byron,  disdainful  as 
he  always  professed  himself  of  those  who  had  cast  off  the 
authority  of  Pope,  was  perhaps  the  most  profoundly  affected 
by,  and  the  most  brilliant  member  of,  the  new  school. 

In  abstract  thought,  the  scientific  spirit  which  is  the 
true  basis  of  rationalism,  and  which,  although  somewhat 
strangely  changed  during  the  process,  had  itself  furnished 
the  motive  power  from  which  the  whole  movement  of 
revolt  was  originally  generated,  was  influenced  in  turn  as  the 
second  renascence  reacted  on  it  and  brought  it  new  force. 
The  real  thinkers  of  the  age  were  not  the  professed  authors 
but  the  philosophers,  using  the  word  in  its  widest  sense. 
Jortin  and  Warburton  had  already  traversed  the  usually 
barren  fields  of  controversy  with  success,  and  examined  with 


212  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

healthy  scepticism  the  legends  and  miracles  of  the  mediaeval 
chm:ch.  Gibbon  pushed  their  conclusions  further,  and  con- 
trived by  bitter  sneer  and  unfair  innuendo  to  poison  the 
womid  he  inflicted  on  the  faithful.  Hume  carried  the  battle 
directly  into  the  citadel  of  religion  with  his  masterly  essays 
against  miracles  ;  while  Paine,  an  unworthy  camp-follower, 
travestied  the  higher  arguments  of  the  revolutionary  school 
in  books  and  pamphlets  more  fitted  for  the  low  taste  of  the 
general  pubHc. 

But  theology  was  receding  more  and  more  into  the  back- 
ground, as  the  way  of  thought  that  had  been  inaugurated 
by  Bacon  began  to  be  commonly  accepted.  The  inductive 
school,  which  admitted  nothing  save  what  rested  on  the  firm 
foundation  of  proven  fact,  was  triumphant  in  England  ;  and 
its  work  was  brilliantly  seconded  by  the  deductive  or  theoretic 
school  in  Scotland.  The  two  systems  were  the  complement 
of  each  other  :  in  the  eyes  of  the  practical  English,  there  were 
few  facts  in  the  universe  that  did  not  need  investigation,  and 
their  cause  to  be  proved ;  in  the  eyes  of  the  metaphysical 
Scots,  few  of  those  theories  that  had  hitherto  been  accepted 
without  hesitation  by  mankind  were  worthy  of  credence  before 
full  inquiry.  And  if  there  was  at  the  time  no  man  whose 
life  marked  a  new  epoch  in  scientific  achievement,  it  is  be- 
cause every  one  who  was  engaged  in  such  work  was  better 
pleased  to  advance  a  few  steps  securely  in  the  road  of  know- 
ledge, than  to  construct  a  vast  and  splendid  edifice,  in  which 
perhaps  his  followers  would  find  the  foundation  lacking.  .  .  . 

The  reforming  movement  quickly  made  itself  felt  in  politics 
and  in  the  social  life  of  the  community.  There  were  many 
attempts  to  purify  and  raise  the  tone  of  both  the  one  and  the 
other.  While  the  synthetic  movement  continued  which 
was  still  forcing  small  isolated  communities  to  amalgamate 
into  larger  homogeneous  bodies,  there  was  evolved  a  new 
sense  of  responsibility  in  government,  hitherto  conspicuously 
absent,   and   a   spirit,  closely  allied  to  the  latter   if  not  at 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        213 

times  absolutely  identical,  which  we  may  call  for  want  of  a 
better  name,  the  New  Humanity. 

The  poHtical  hfe  of  the  earUer  eighteenth  century  had  been 
corrupt  and  factious  to  a  degree.  National  interests  were 
lost  sight  of  when  those  of  party  came  in  the  way  ;  and  party 
influences  claimed  every  man  of  mark  throughout  the  kingdom. 
It  was  the  overpowering  genius  of  the  elder  Pitt,  here  as  in  so 
many  other  directions,  that  showed  the  way  to  improvement. 
His  Coahtion  Government  broke  down  a  few  of  the  party 
barriers  ;  and  if  matters  again  reverted  to  their  former  state, 
it  was  at  any  rate  shown  that  a  great  national  crisis  and  a 
great  national  leader  could  temporarily  override  all  opposition. 

Parliament,  too,  had  degenerated  into  a  mere  body  of  place- 
men, elected  by  a  small  caucus  from  districts  that  had  fre- 
quently become  of  Httle  account,  owing  to  the  migration  of 
population  :  the  House  of  Commons  was  thoroughly  unrepre- 
sentative, and  its  members  voted  obediently  for  the  wire- 
puller who  could  give  the  highest  bribe.  It  should  have  been 
the  pulse  of  the  people  :  it  was,  in  fact,  out  of  sympathy  with 
their  feelings,  and  selfishly  bent  on  gaining  its  own  ends. 
Again  it  was  Pitt  who  saw  the  need  of  reform  in  the  electoral 
system.  He  sketched  out  a  project  which  should  again  bring 
ParHament  into  touch  with  national  hfe ;  and  although 
his  schemes  miscarried  owing  to  the  force  of  outside 
events,  and  the  combined  opposition  of  every  vested  interest, 
and  every  simple  reactionary  or  mere  sentimental  admirer  of 
the  past,  the  seed  he  had  let  faU  was  not  thrown  away.  It 
germinated  and  grew  in  strength,  resulting  eventually  in  the 
Reform  Bill  of  1832,  and  the  further  extensions  of  the  fran- 
chise which  have  taken  place  since  then.  Burke,  too,  by  his 
measure  cutting  down  the  pubHc  pension  Hst,  by  reducing  the 
secret  service  money,  and  by  checking  financial  extravagance 
in  the  administration,  not  only  reduced  the  burden  of  taxa- 
tion, but  lessened  the  opportunities  for  pohtical  corruption — a 
more  important  point. 


214  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

The  next  generation  went  further  still.  The  younger  Pitt 
brought  to  an  end  the  anomalous  and  unjust  minority  Parlia- 
ment that  had  sat  at  Dubhn,  and  by  the  act  of  1801  Ireland 
was  joined  to  Great  Britain  :  it  was  his  wish,  also,  to  sweep 
away  the  laws  against  those  who  did  not  profess  the  tenets  of 
the  Church  of  England.  In  this  he  was  unsuccessful,  since  the 
thought  was  too  advanced  for  the  age  ;  but  although  defeated 
for  the  moment,  the  idea  was  never  abandoned,  and  another 
few  years  saw  the  abohtion  of  all  but  a  few  of  the  rehgious  tests 
as  a  quaHfication  for  pubhc  Hfe. 

These  reforms  at  home  have  little  to  do  with  the  British 
colonies,  save  in  so  far  as  any  improvement  at  the  heart  of  the 
Imperial  empire  must  of  necessity  circulate  after  a  time 
Responsi-  through  each  of  the  other  members  ;  but  of  vital 
^  ^  ^'  importance  to  the  dependencies  was  the  move- 

ment that  brought  out  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  the 
possessions  overseas,  a  movement  that  grew  later  into  a  new 
feehng  of  brotherhood  with  those  inhabiting  them. 

There  could,  indeed,  be  Httle  enthusiasm  about  the  colonies 
for  many  years  after  the  Imperial  Civil  War.  The  old  EngHsh 
settlements  across  the  Atlantic  had  revolted.  Canada  was 
looked  upon  as  a  half-frozen  province  of  indefinite  extent, 
that  had  been  saved  from  the  wreck  of  the  rebeUion  by  a 
curious  freak  of  fate.  AustraHa  was  beheved  to  be  a  dismal 
and  half-desert  island,  which  providence  had  judiciously 
placed  on  the  other  side  of  the  world  in  order  that  British 
criminals,  when  transported  thither,  should  find  no  possible 
means  of  returning.  Cape  Colony  was  considered  a  valueless 
possession. 

But  the  position  with  regard  to  India  was  very  different. 
The  astounding  conquests  of  a  few  years  had  left  the  British 
practically  masters  of  the  whole  country.  Every  feeling  of 
curiosity  had  been  roused  by  the  reports  of  its  wealth  and 
magnificence  ;  every  noble  sentiment  had  been  roused  by  the 
helpless  condition  of  its  inhabitants,  who  were  too  often  a 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        215 

prey  to  the  rapacity  of  the  East  India  Company  and  its 
officials  ;  every  instinct  of  justice  had  been  roused  by  the 
feeHng  that  a  commercial  corporation,  whose  first  thought 
must  necessarily  be  its  own  profit  and  the  earning  of  divi- 
dends for  its  own  stockholders,  ought  not  to  be  finally  answer- 
able for  the  government,  as  well  as  the  trade,  of  the  huge 
possession  that  had  unexpectedly  fallen  into  its  hands. 

There  are  few  finer  passages  in  our  history  than  the  gradual 
awakening  to  a  reahsation  of  the  responsibility  that  seemed 
to  be  placed  upon  the  Enghsh  people  by  God  Himself  as  the 
duty  of  the  strong  towards  the  weak,  the  healthy  towards  the 
sick  ;  a  responsibihty  that  was  soon  seen  to  apply  equally  to 
the  care  of  the  other  alien  peoples  within  the  empire,  to  the 
wretched  African  slave  of  the  West  Indies,  to  the  aboriginal 
American  whom  our  advance  in  Canada  drove  ever  further 
westwards,  to  the  native  Austrahan  who  dies  so  quickly 
before  the  white  man,  to  the  native  South  African  whose 
increase  is  quicker  than  our  own. 

It  is  this  feehng  which  we  call  the  New  Humanity.  Its 
workings  were  to  be  seen  also  in  England,  in  attempts  to 
elevate  the  condition  of  the  lowest  classes,  by  giving  the 
children  some  instruction  in  the  Sunday  or  Ragged  Schools 
then  recently  founded ;  in  an  improvement  some  years  later 
of  the  legal  system,  partly  by  abolishing  the  old  prisons  with 
their  filthy  arrangements  and  herding  together  of  aU  degrees 
of  criminals,  partly  by  reduction  of  some  of  those  barbarously 
severe  sentences  which  disgraced  the  English  law  ;  partly 
in  the  eventual  introduction  of  new  and  still  tentative  methods 
of  pimishment  devised  to  do  away  with  the  old  penal  arrange- 
ments which  neither  reformed  nor  deterred.^ 

^  Another  aspect  of  the  increasing  humanitarian  sentiment  of  the  age 
is  too  often  passed  over  in  silence  ;  I  refer  to  its  care  for  the  lower  animals, 
and  to  the  attempts  that  were  now  made  to  suppress  cruelty  in  sport  and 
in  the  treatment  of  beasts  of  burden.  In  the  year  1822,  'The  first  law 
ever  enacted  in  any  country  for  the  interest  of  the  brute  creation' — I 
quote  Sir  Herbert  Maxwell — was  passed  through  Parliament  by  Richard 
Martin,   the   member  for   Galway,   who  was  the  leading  spirit  in  the 


216  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

It  was  fitting  that  the  first  voice  of  the  New  Humanity 
should  be  that  of  the  melancholy  recluse,  whose  clouded, 
The  Poet  of  ^^^iliappy  existence,  albeit  passed  amid  the  peace- 
the  New  ful  lanes  and  gardens  of  Bedfordshire,  made  him 
Humanity,  gyjj^pathise  with  the  lot  of  the  helpless  and 
oppressed  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe.  Years  before  Burke 
thundered  against  Warren  Hastings  in  Westminster  Hall, 
years  before  Wilberforce  introduced  his  proposals  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves,  the  poet  Cowper,  far  apart  from 
the  strife  and  the  turmoil  in  which  men  of  iron  were  ruthlessly 
building  up  the  great  empire  overseas,  had  condemned  in 
his  verse  the  excesses  of  those  victors  who  filled  India  with 
terror,  and  the  cruelties  of  those  masters  who  saw  in  the 
African  negro  merely  a  cheap  and  continuously  reproductive 
source  of  labour  : — 

'  Hast  thou,  though  suckled  at  fair  freedom's  breast, 
Exported  slavery  to  the  conquered  East  ? 
Pulled  down  the  tyrants  India  served  with  dread, 
And  raised  thyself,  a  greater,  in  their  stead  1 
Gone  thither  armed  and  hungry,  returned  full. 
Fed  from  the  richest  veins  of  the  Mogul, 
A  despot  big  with  power  obtained  by  wealth, 
And  that  obtained  by  rapine  and  by  stealth  1 

formation  of  the  beneficent  Royal  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty 
to  Animals.  The  name  of  this  excellent  man  deserves  to  be  better 
remembered  than  it  is. 

It  is  significant  of  the  tendency  of  public  opinion  that  Coleridge's  lines 
on  the  subject  are  dated  in  the  year  1797  : — 

'He  prayeth  well,  who  loveth  well 

Both  man  and  bird  and  beast. 

He  prayeth  best,  who  loveth  best 

All  things  both  great  and  small ; 

For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 

He  made  and  loveth  all.' 
I  may  be  mistaken  ;  but  I  have  always  thought  that  the  growth  of  this 
sentiment  in  the  Victorian  age  is  a  more  conclusive  proof  of  the  real 
progress  of  civilisation  than  many  of  its  vaunted  achievements  in  utili- 
tarian invention.  And  the  English  nation,  which  is  sometimes  believed 
by  envious  foreigners  to  count  wife-beating  among  its  cheaper  and  more 
popular  domestic  amusements,  may  perhaps  take  a  little  credit  to  itself 
for  the  lead  it  has  given  the  world  in  the  suppression  of  wanton  cruelty 
to  animals. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD -STRUGGLE       217 

With  Asiatic  vices  stored  thy  mind, 

But  left  their  virtues  and  thine  own  behind ; 

And  having  trucked  thy  soul,  brought  home  the  fee, 

To  tempt  the  poor  to  sell  himself  to  thee  1 ' 

In  such  lofty  tones  of  reproach,  did  he  repudiate  the  mis- 
deeds of  the  East  India  Company  and  its  agents.  Equally 
emphatic  was  he  as  regards  slavery  : — 

'  I  would  not  have  a  slave  to  till  my  ground. 
To  carry  me,  to  fan  me  while  I  sleep. 
And  tremble  when  I  wake,  for  all  the  wealth, 
That  sinews  bought  and  sold  have  ever  earned.  .  .  . 
We  have  no  slaves  at  home. — Why  then  abroad  ?  .  .  . 
Slaves  cannot  breathe  in  England ;  if  their  lungs 
Receive  our  air,  that  moment  they  are  free. 
They  touch  our  country,  and  their  shackles  fall. 

.  .  .  Spread  it  then. 
And  let  it  circulate  through  every  vein 
Of  all  your  empire ;  that  where  Britain's  power 
Is  felt,  mankind  may  feel  her  mercy,  too.' 

Throughout  all  his  work  the  same  voice  of  humanity 
rises ;  whether  regretting  the  tyranny  of  the  strong  over  the 
weak,  or  protesting  against  the  '  detested  sport  that  owes 
its  pleasure  to  another's  pain.'  At  times  he  exaggerates, 
as  when  he  merely  echoes  the  vulgar  clamour  which  pictured 
Clive  with  '  overgorged  and  bloated  purse,'  or  believes  that 
British  extortion  in  the  East  had  made  '  our  arch  of  empire 
a  mutilated  structure  soon  to  fall ' ;  or  again,  in  saying  that, 
'  doing  good,  disinterested  good,  is  not  our  trade ' ;  but  in 
spite  of  all  the  excesses  and  the  abuses  he  condemns,  he  still 
has  faith  in  his  country,  and  'her  magnificent  and  awful  cause.' 

Cowper  was  the   perfect  type  and  symbol  of    the  New 
Humanity,  alike  in  its  excellences  and  its  defects.    A  text 
might  be  found  in  his  poems  for  all  the  causes  it 
championed  in  its  ea  iier  days.     That  stern  moral    and  Defects 
indignation,  that  deiire  to  redress  abuses  and  to    °^  ^^®  ^f^ 
wipe  out  foul  stains,  whatever  and  wherever  they 
may  be,  which  has  given  the  New  Humanity  its  most  splendid 


218  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEKSEAS 

victories,  were  possessed  in  no  small  measuie  by  the  man 
who  was  too  timorous  to  read  aloud  in  public.  That  fellow- 
feeling  with  the  downtrodden,  that  sympathy  with  the 
afflicted  and  the  poor,  that  charity  for  the  sufiering,  which 
has  made  the  New  Humanity  a  power  of  such  incalculable 
good  to  England  and  the  world,  were  all  possessed  by  the  man 
who  petted  a  hare  for  years  and  wrote  an  elegy  on  its  death. 

But  the  spirit  of  exaggeration  which  we  have  noticed  in 
Cowper  was  unfortunately  also  destined  to  be  typical  of  the  New 
Humanity.  Relying  on  the  heart  at  least  as  much  as  on  the 
head,  to  it  belonged  all  the  defects  that  spring  from  exuberant 
but  ill-balanced  sympathy.  If  any  cause  it  attacked  was  bad, 
therefore  all  those  connected,  however  remotely,  with  that 
cause,  and  however  much  above  reproach  their  character 
might  be  in  other  respects,  were  also  bad.  To  a  passion 
for  doing  good,  it  united  a  passion  for  vihf5ang  its  opponents. 
Ever  ready  to  check  evil,  it  saw  evil  everywhere.  It  magnified 
small  abuses  and  the  petty  folHes  of  mankind  into  mountains, 
and  cried  to  have  them  removed.  It  attacked  with  intemperate 
vehemence  ;  and  although  its  victories  were  not  counted  to 
England  for  righteousness,  its  fooKshness  was  readily  and 
not  unjustly  reckoned  abroad  as  a  national  characteristic. 
That  more  or  less  unconscious  hypocrisy,  which  has  fre- 
quently made  us  a  laughing-stock  among  other  nations,  and 
which  sprang  originally  from  puritanism,  drew  fresh  strength 
from  the  New  Humanity,  The  ineffable  outpourings  of 
pseudo-progressives  and  self-styled  reformers  ;  the  dogmatic 
intemperance  of  temperance  societies  ;  the  petty  obsessions 
of  the  minor  religious  sects  ;  the  cherished  inanities  of  the 
over-righteous  everywhere  :  all  ahke  are  manifestations  of 
the  New  Humanity  run  to  seed.^ 

These  are  the  smaller  evils  ;    others   greater  have  come 

^  The  scepticism  which  Mr.  Samuel  Weller,  Senior,  expressed  regard- 
ing the  precise  vahie  to  the  negroes  of  flannel  waistcoats  and  moral 
pocket  handkerchiefs,  might  be  extended  to  a  number  of  otlier  more  or 
less  philanthropic  enterprises  without  doing  harm. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       219 

from  the  very  warmth  of  that  feehng  for  the  less  advanced 
races  which  has  given  the  cause  itself  its  highest  triumphs. 
While  sympathising  nobly  with  those  who  were  oppressed 
by  civihsed  man  ;  while  assuming,  without  hope  of  reward, 
and  indeed  with  great  prospect  of  misconstruction  being 
put  on  their  aims,  the  task  of  protecting  the  undeveloped 
man  against  the  developed  :  there  was  too  much  of  a  tendency 
to  forget  that  an  irremovable  chasm  of  thousands  of  years 
separated  the  two.  The  less  informed  exponents  of  the  New 
Humanity  indulged  ghbly  in  cheap  vapourings  about  the 
equahty  and  the  relationship  of  aU  mankind,  and  they  did 
considerable  harm  by  their  failure  to  perceive  that  the  problem 
raised  altogether  deeper  issues  than  could  be  covered  by  the 
mere  miproved  assertion. 

Frequently  it  was  ignorance,  occasionally  lack  of  common 
sense,  and  at  times  a  curious  anti-national  bias,  that  caused 
them  to  err.  If  it  was  a  matter  of  Indian  government  they 
were  considering,  they  saw  no  distinction  between  the  demon- 
worshipping  Dravidian,  the  high-caste  Hindu,  and  the  war- 
like Sikh  ;  aU  were  ahke  '  fellow-men,'  and  all  should  have  a 
vote  ;  if  they  were  not  immediately  fitted  for  it,  they  must 
be  educated  up  to  it.  It  was  not  reahsed  that  such  educa- 
tion was  a  matter  not  of  generations,  but  of  centuries  ;  and  it 
was  not  foreseen  that  the  sole  outcome  of  a  parhament  com- 
posed of  such  various  groups,  none  of  whom  had  previously 
shown  the  faintest  desire  for  representative  institutions, 
would  be  general  anarchy. 

The  same  thing  occurred  in  South  Africa.  Some  of  those 
who  were  loudest  in  their  desire  to  '  elevate  our  negro 
brethren,'  included  mider  that  term  as  equals  the  brave 
Zulu  and  the  stunted  Hottentot,  the  Kafir  and  the  Matabele  ; 
none  of  whom  in  fact  are  negroes  at  all,  and  each  of  whom 
difier  from  each  other  at  least  as  much  as  the  Saxon  from  the 
Slav.  That  did  not  matter  to  the  enthusiast ;  they  were 
freed  from  slavery  ;    they  must  have  the  franchise.     The 

\ 
\ 
I 


220  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

same  quack  medicine  was  expected  to  cure  them  all  of  a 
disease  of  which  none  were  conscious. 

These,  and  other  excrescences  of  the  New  Humanity,  have 
done  it  harm  in  the  eyes  of  moderate  and  unprejudiced  men. 
Yet  it  would  be  absurdly  unjust  to  set  off  the  occasional 
folhes  of  a  school  of  thought  against  the  solid  services  it  has 
rendered.  The  New  Humanity,  in  fact,  runs  through  all  our 
recent  history  as  a  purifying,  elevating  influence.  Had  it 
not  been  for  its  working,  we  should  indeed  have  avoided 
some  mistakes  in  general  polity ;  but  we  should  never  have 
created  the  Indian  imperial  system,  and  we  should  never 
have  abolished  slavery.  The  two  achievements,  the  former 
practical  and  constructive,  the  latter  idealist  and  rightly 
destructive,  were  more  than  sufficient  to  outweigh  the  errors 
of  a  century  of  faddists. 

For  the  first  time  since  her  connection  with  Asia,  England 
as  a  whole  began  to  take  an  interest  in  Indian  affairs,  when 
Reform  in  the  news  of  CHve's  and  Hastings'  victories  reached 
India.  home.     Commerce  had  brought  the  East  nearer 

to  England.^    In  a  higher  sense,  too,  the  connection  between 

^  The  course  of  trade  by  way  of  the  Cape  is  referred  to  in  Tristram 
Shandy,  and  it  is  suggested  that  Indian  doctrines,  which  began  to  be 
discussed  in  Europe  at  this  period,  also  came  by  the  same  route.  An 
allusion  to  the  East  was  no  longer  pedantic  in  a  novel.  Fielding  speaks 
of  '  the  Bannians  in  India,  who  dedicate  their  whole  lives  to  the  preserva- 
tion and  protection  of  certain  animals,'  and  compares  them  sarcastically 
with  English  game-preservers.  Miss  Burney  makes  her  Captain  vow  to 
Evelina  that  he  would  sooner  go  into  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta  than 
accompany  a  party  to  Ranelagh.  The  '  Club '  often  debated  the  affairs 
of  Asia  ;  and  Johnson,  who  could  see  nothing  but  savages  and  scoundrels 
in  America,  recovered  his  sanity  when  other  parts  of  the  world  were 
mentioned.  An  anecdote  of  fortune  hunters  in  the  East  Indies  was  told 
among  them  with  immense  gusto  in  1776 ;  the  custom  of  going  there  to 
make  wealth  was  alluded  to  again  in  1778,  and  was  no  doubt  a  frequent 
subject  of  jest.  Johnson,  as  became  one  of  the  old  Tories,  defended  the 
system  of  caste  ;  he  had  once  met  Warren  Hastings,  and  wrote  two 
letters  to  him  ;  a  discussion  on  his  policy  is  preserved  in  Boswell's  Life. 
No  play  of  the  period  was  complete  without  the  figure  of  the  wicked 
Englishman  who  extorted  untold  wealth  from  trembling  natives,  and 
returned  home  to  be  tortured  by  a  bad  conscience  and  an  equally  bad 
liver  for  the  rest  of  his  days. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       221 

Orient  and  Occident  appealed  to  idealists  such  as  Burke,  who 
saw  '  one  of  the  races  of  the  North-West  cast  into  the  heart 
of  Asia  new  manners,  new  doctrines,  new  institutions/ 

But  as  the  political  power  of  the  Bast  India  Company 
increased,  it  became  evident  to  the  deeper  thinkers  of  the 
age,  that  a  body  of  commercial  men  could  not  be  permitted 
to  continue  the  government  of  subject  nations  under  the  same 
conditions  that  had  been  sufficient  when  they  were  solely  a 
trading  corporation.  If  the  great  successes  won  by  CUve 
and  Hastings  filled  people  with  pride,  the  means  by  which 
they  had  been  won  were  condemned. 

In  the  splendid  simile  of  Burke,  the  British  Parliament 
claimed  '  an  imperial  character  in  which  as  from  the  throne 
of  heaven  she  superintends  all  the  several  inferior  legislatures, 
and  guides  and  controls  them  all,  without  annihilating  any.' 
As  regards  America,  the  Stamp  Act  and  the  Imperial  Civil 
War  showed  how  much  his  boast  was  worth.  If  the  orator's 
magnificent  phrase  were  not  ever  to  remain  unmeaning  rhetoric, 
the  opportunity  to  fulfil  it  came  when  India  passed  into  English 
hands. 

That  opportunity  was  not  neglected  ;  but  the  reasons  which 
induced  Parliament  to  intervene  in  the  government  of  India 
were  typical  of  the  spirit  that  animated  the  New  Humanity. 
The  factions  and  dissensions  among  the  directors  of  the  East 
India  Company  were  of  little  importance  to  any  one  save  the 
shareholders  ;  and  the  latter  were  quite  capable  of  looking 
after  themselves.  Neither  was  it  the  fact  that  the  Company 
required  a  loan  from  the  State  which  brought  about  the  change, 
although  that  of  itself  gave  Parliament  the  right  to  a  voice 
in  Indian  affairs.  It  was  the  knowledge  that  much  of  the 
wealth  brought  home  had  neither  been  made  in  trade,  nor 
fairly  derived  from  revenue,  that  first  roused  general  dis- 
approval ;  and  when  part  of  the  wretched  story  of  rapacity 
leaked  out,  and  to  it  was  added  the  appaUing  accounts  of  the 
Bengal  famine,  together  with  the  suspicion  that  the  Com- 


222  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

pany's  servants  not  only  did  nothing  to  check  it,  but  actually 
made  money  out  of  the  miseries  of  those  who  had  become 
their  subjects  :  the  combined  ejffect  of  these  abuses  forced 
ParHament  to  take  part  in  the  government  of  India. 

The  horrible  accounts  that  reached  England  were  in  many 
cases  overdrawn,  and  no  justification  was  discovered  for  the 
belief  that  the  Company  had  profited  by  the  famine  :  but  the 
New  Humanity,  with  that  tendency  to  exaggeration  which 
we  have  remarked,  was  not  too  careful  in  the  instances  of 
abuse  it  quoted.  But  a  storm  of  indignation  was  aroused 
by  facts  which  could  not  be  denied ;  and  measures  were 
quickly  taken  to  relieve  the  Company  of  part  of  that  responsi- 
bihty  of  which  it  had  shown  itself  unworthy,  and  which  it 
was  indeed  impossible  for  it  to  exercise  with  impartiality  and 
due  regard  both  for  its  own  interests  and  those  of  the  natives 
of  India. 

Not  until  after  the  Mutiny  of  1857  did  England  take  over 
the  entire  direction  of  Indian  government ;  but  from  the  first 
Regulating  Act  of  1773  it  was  recognised  as  a  principle  that 
the  ultimate  responsibihty  for  the  great  dependency  lay 
with  the  nation,  and  not  with  the  Company. 

Had  it  not  been  so,  it  may  safely  be  said  that  we  should  not 
have  possessed  India  to-day.  The  strength  of  the  Company 
imsparingly  exercised,  the  tyranny  of  the  West  misparingly 
imposed  on  the  East,  might  have  preserved  it  for  a  few  years. 
Men  hke  Clive  and  Hastings  might  have  found  successors, 
brilliant,  unscrupulous,  and  daring  as  they.  But  had  the 
East  India  Company  been  allowed  to  continue  as  an  oriental 
autocrat,  no  Bentinck  would  have  adorned  the  splendid  list 
of  Governors-General ;  no  Canning  would  have  balanced  with 
even  justice  the  scales  between  East  and  West  after  the  great 
outbreak  of  1857  ;  none  of  that  broad  policy  of  social  and 
industrial  improvement  throughout  India,  in  which  are 
blended  with  careful  hand  the  complex,  contrasted  civihsa- 
tions  of  Orient  and  Occident,  would  have  been  inaugurated: 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        223 

for  no  private  trading  company  could  or  would  have  under- 
taken it. 

Sooner  or  later,  the  English  East  Lidia  Company  must  have 
been  driven  from  India  :  and  the  history  of  our  connection 
with  Asia,  instead  of  being  a  source  of  legitimate  pride  to 
every  Englishman,  would  have  been  a  shame,  a  reproach, 
and  a  stain  ;  for  it  would  have  told  of  opportunities  missed 
such  as  have  presented  themselves  to  few  other  nations,  of  a 
sordid  incapacity  to  rise  above  the  level  of  business,  to  grasp 
anything  but  the  immediate  profits  of  trade  ;  it  would  have 
shown  that,  though  possessed  of  the  strength  of  arm  to  conquer, 
we  had  not  the  strength  of  character  to  rule  ;  and  the  tears 
of  the  ruined  provinces  of  the  East,  mingled  with  the  curses 
of  our  own  revolted  colonies  in  the  West,  would  have  been  a 
sign  and  a  warning  for  ever  that  the  terrible  but  just  vengeance 
of  God  and  of  man  had  at  length  overwhelmed  those  who, 
being  free  themselves,  could  yet  rivet  the  chains  of  slavery 
on  others,  and  dare  to  order  their  goings  on  the  earth  with 
no  thought  save  for  the  amount  of  profit  they  could  extort 
from  the  forced  labour  of  nations  weaker  than  their  own. 

From  such  a  peril  the  New  Humanity  saved  us,  as  it  awak- 
ened a  sense  of  responsibiHty  for  the  welfare  of  those  who  had 
been  brought  under  our  rule.  That  magnificent  ideal  of  empire 
was  gradually  evolved,  which  postulates  that  every  citizen 
stands  free  among  his  fellows,  and  equal  before  the  law, 
without  distinction  of  race  or  creed,  of  wealth  or  title  ;  and 
it  is  as  a  living  symbol  of  that  ideal  that  the  British  Empire 
exists  to-day.  It  is  not,  indeed,  yet  fully  reahsed  in  practice. 
But  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  it  was  not 
realised  at  all ;  we  have  already  seen  in  a  previous  chapter 
that  England  was  unconscious  of  being  a  world-power,  at 
the  very  time  when  her  victories  had  made  her  the  leader  of 
the  outer  world.  Slowly  with  the  disaster  that  overtook 
them  in  the  West  our  people  reahsed  their  responsibihties  ; 
and  from  that  time  they  have  never  turned  back,  even  though 


224  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

they  have  occasionally  groaned  under  the  burden,  even  though 
there  have  been  days  when  it  has  seemed  too  heavy  to  be  borne. 

About  the  same  time  that  the  responsibiUty  of  England  for 
the  government  of  India  was  brought  home  to  her,  the  full 
Slave  Eman-  iniquity  of  the  tra£5c  in  African  slaves  was  revealed 
cipation.  ^^q  ^  few  men,  who,  to  their  honour  and  our  own, 
would  not  rest  until  negro  emancipation  was  an  accompHshed 
fact.i 

The  chief  author  of  the  agitation  for  abolishing  slavery  was 
William  Wilberforce.  Others  had  expressed  their  opinion  as 
wiiberforce  *°  ^^^  ^^^  wrought  by  the  traffic  in  slaves  before 
and  the  him,  and,  indeed,  he  never  claimed  to  be  the  first 
Evangelicals.  ^^  ^^^  Abolitionists.  We  have  seen  that  Cowper 
protested  in  verse  against  the  wrong,  and  Burke  was  con- 
vinced as  early  as  1780.  But  Wilberforce  was  undoubtedly 
the  real  working  head  of  the  cause,  and  his  life  sums  up  in 
essentials  the  whole  philanthropic  movement  of  the  time. 
From  his  pubHshed  writings  it  is  evident  how  entirely  that 
movement  originated  in  religious  conviction,  and  was  the 
work  of  the  celebrated  EvangeHcal  school  of  which  he  was  a 
leading  member. 

That  school  it  is  easy  enough  to  criticise  in  a  depreciatory 
fashion.  Many  of  its  leading  spirits  were  prosy  and  pompous, 
and  overgiven  to  congratulating  the  Almighty  that  he  had 
created  them  so  good,  after  the  manner  amusingly  satirised 
by  Thackeray.  They  were  narrow  and  dogmatic,  inheriting 
in  this  much  of  the  old  puritan  tradition.  They  were  afraid 
of  the  lighter  side  of  fife,  fearing  the  influence  of  the  devil 
in  the  most  innocent  diversions.  Wilberforce  himself  was 
no  exception,  as  his  correspondence  shows.  He  abominated 
'  the  playhouse  '  as  '  directly  contrary  to  the  laws  of  God  ' ; 
he  considered  concerts  and  balls  as  '  vanities  ' ;  he  gave  up 
singing    as    a    dangerous    accomplishment.     Few    examples 

^  For  a  full  account  of  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  and  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  slaves,  see  the  fourth  volume  of  this  work. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        225 

could  show  better  the  completeness  with  which  the  Evangeli- 
cals were  imbued  with  the  unsesthetic  tastes  of  the  puritans. 
He  held  to  the  full  those  strict  views  as  to  the  observance  of 
Sunday  which  have  done  so  much  to  make  the  day  of  rest  a 
day  of  listless  idleness,  or  even  worse,  in  Britain  :  he  was 
horrified  by  the  easier  CathoUc  doctrine  that  recreation 
might  be  indulged  in  after  the  morning  devotions  were  con- 
cluded. He  even  reproached  himself  that  he  was  '  not  half 
strict  enough,'  when  one  of  his  friends  doubted.  The  most 
trivial  incident  of  life  he  turned  to  some  moral  purpose,  and 
his  intimate  correspondence  was  full  of  precepts.  '  Many 
would  call  this  a  sermon  rather  than  a  letter,'  he  once  wrote  : 
and  the  remark  was  true  of  almost  all  his  epistles. 

With  the  narrowness  of  puritanism,  the  Evangelical  had 
also  the  unctuous  phraseology  of  the  Methodist.  Such 
remarks  as  '  piety  is  a  lovely  spectacle  in  youth  '  were  frequent 
among  them  :  the  whole  world  was  summed  up  in  hke  fashion. 
Even  Bowdler,  self-appointed  cleanser  of  the  Augean  stables 
of  English  hterature,  was  '  very  pleasing  and  pious  ' ;  the  man 
whose  expurgations  of  Shakespeare  now  savour  both  of 
absurdity  and  artistic  sacrilege  was  a  shining  hght  among 
the  earlier  Evangelicals. 

The  school  hated  Cathohcism  with  undying  hate.  The  most 
deliberately  offensive  epithets  were  chosen  to  describe  the 
oldest  form  of  Christianity.  At  their  headquarters  in  Clap- 
ham  the  air  was  thick  with  denunciations  of  the  '  scarlet 
woman  ' ;  the  Pope  was  identified  with  anti-Christ,  until 
the  rising  star  of  Napoleon  caused  a  heresy  among  the  com- 
mentators, by  making  it  possible  for  a  parallel  to  be  drawn 
between  the  French  Emperor  and  the  awful  scourge  of  the 
Apocalypse.  Those  who  consider  that  Thackeray  exagger- 
ated, when  he  drew  Mrs.  Newcome's  anger  at  young  Tom's 
desire  to  marry  a  '  papist,'  have  only  to  turn  to  Wilberforce's 
correspondence  to  see  that  the  novehst  has,  if  anything, 
undercoloured  the  picture.      Although  aware  that  Catholi- 

VOL.  II.  j> 


226  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

cism  was  the  established  creed  of  Haiti,  the  apostle  of  emanci- 
pation would  not  recognise  it  even  as  a  corrupt  form  of  his 
own  rehgion,  for  he  desired  to  seize  '  the  inconceivably 
important  opportunity  of  sowing  Christianity  '  there.  This 
he  proceeded  to  do  by  sending  out  to  the  negroes  '  great 
varieties  of  excellent  little  works.'  As  they  were  written  in 
English,  a  language  the  natives  could  not  understand,  they 
probably  fell  on  even  more  stony  ground  than  the  majority 
of  tracts,  a  form  of  propaganda  peculiarly  affected  by  the 
Evangelicals. 

The  shortcomings  of  the  school  are  thus  patent :  they 
must  not  bhnd  us  to  its  excellences.  Those  who  composed 
it  were  honest  and  God-fearing  men,  anxious  to  do  the  right, 
and,  as  such,  zealously  striving  to  propagate  their  own  form 
of  rehgion  through  the  world.  Wilberforce  was  working  for 
the  estabUshment  of  Christianity  in  Austraha  in  1786,  almost 
before  there  were  any  settlers  there  ;  he  was  interested  in 
the  missions  of  Bengal ;  he  wished  to  '  convert,  civihse, 
instruct,  and  attach  '  the  Irish  ;  he  encouraged  the  project 
of  founding  a  Hbrary  in  Nova  Scotia,  in  order  to  minimise 
the  evil  results  of  '  French  philosophy  '  in  that  country  ;  he 
gave  advice  to  the  rulers  of  Haiti  relative  to  religion  and 
Sunday  observance  which  fills  many  pages  of  his  voluminous 
correspondence. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  httle  success  attended  many  of 
these  ei!orts.  The  pecuharly  drab  garments  in  which  Evan- 
gelical Christianity  was  clothed  were  not  calculated  to  make 
it  attractive  to  everybody ;  and  the  way  in  which  it  dis- 
countenanced amusements  and  encouraged  an  unnatural 
solemnity  would  alone  have  caused  its  eventual  rejection. 
But  in  endeavouring  to  convert  all  mankind,  the  Evangelicals 
were  but  obeying,  according  to  their  hghts,  the  command 
of  their  divine  master.  Many  of  the  great  missionary 
societies  were  founded  by  them  at  this  time  ;  indeed,  philan- 
thropic societies  of  all  kinds  began  to  flourish,  from  the 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        227 

British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  to  those  for  the  improve- 
ment of  prison  discipline,  the  reformation  of  juvenile  offenders 
and  pubhc  morality,  the  diffusion  of  information  on  capital 
punishment,  and  a  hundred  others. 

The  abolition  of  slavery  was  thus  not  by  any  means  the 
sole  object  of  Wilberforce's  life  :  but  from  about  the  year 
1786,  when  a  correspondent  mentions  '  the  humane  subject 
that  lately  interested  you,'  until  his  final  success,  it  occupied 
more  and  more  of  his  time.  Young  and  earnest,  a  gentleman 
of  fortune  with  all  the  brilliant  society  of  the  metropolis  open 
to  him,  he  turned  away  from  the  career  that  most  men  in  his 
position  would  have  chosen,  in  order  to  work  for  others.  He 
was  only  twenty-eight  years  of  age  when  he  broached  the 
subject  of  slave  emancipation  to  his  friend,  William  Pitt 
the  younger.  '  At  length  I  well  remember,'  he  wrote  many 
years  later,  '  after  a  conversation  in  the  open  air  at  the  root 
of  an  old  tree  at  Holwood,  just  above  the  steep  ascent  into 
the  vale  of  Keston,  I  resolved  to  give  notice  on  a  fit  occasion 
in  the  House  of  Commons  to  bring  the  subject  forward.' 

From  the  day  on  which  he  stood  by  that  spot,  itself  one 
of  the  most  perfect  examples  of  the  peaceful  Enghsh  country- 
side, an  organised  agitation  was  carried  on  throughout  the 
kingdom.  The  entry  '  slave  business '  continually  recurs 
in  his  diary.  There  are  few  of  his  letters  but  have  some 
reference  to  it. 

The  task  before  him  was  an  arduous  one,  since  he  proposed 
to  destroy  a  powerful  and  wealthy  commercial  interest,  and 
I  very  quickly  he  and  his  friends  '  began  to  perceive  more 
difficulties  in  the  way  than  he  had  hoped  there  would  be.' 
But  for  forty-five  years  there  was  no  slackening :  and  in 
the  next  century,  when  the  flood-gates  of  reform  were  opened, 
during  the  great  peace,  the  Bill  for  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves  was  at  last  passed  through  ParHament  in  1833. 
Wilberforce  only  hved  to  hear  that  it  had  been  read  a  second 
time,  but   by  then  its   passage  was  assured ;    and  he  died 


228  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

blessing  God  that  the  labours  of  his  hfe  had  been  crowned 
with  victory. 

Thus  was  the  doctrine  of  British  responsibility  for  the 
non-British  races  within  the  empire  extended  from  those 
who  lived  in  India  only  to  those  who  lived  in  every  part  of 
our  territories.  From  that  time  the  people  of  Great  Britain 
have  been  directly  responsible  for  the  welfare  of  all  the  non- 
British  inhabitants  in  every  colony  that  has  not  itself  received 
responsible  government ;  in  the  latter  the  responsibility 
has  naturally  been  delegated  to  the  colonists  themselves. 

Unfortmiately  it  cannot  be  said  that  success  in  this  con- 
nection has  always  been  marked  ;  neither  can  it  be  claimed 
that  all  the  colonies  have  seen  their  responsibility  in  the  same 
light,  nor  that  the  intervention  of  the  mother  country  has 
always  been  inspired  by  wisdom, — a  divergence  of  view 
caused  by  the  varying  status  of  the  aboriginal  races  and  the 
extent  of  their  power,  as  shown  by  the  differences  in  the 
amount  of  their  vitahty  and  productiveness. 

Such  were  the  first,  and  among  the  greatest,  victories  of 
the  New  Humanity,  But  as  we  look  back  over  the  nineteenth 
century,  we  can  perceive  its  influence  working  in  almost 
every  direction  ;  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  discover  any 
movement,  even  at  the  present  day,  whose  origin  cannot  be 
traced,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  thought  of  the  period 
between  the  end  of  the  Seven  Years'  War  and  the  close  of 
the  struggle  with  Napoleon.  All  those  attempts  to  alleviate 
the  burden  of  life  for  the  weak,  to  make  it  higher  and  ampler 
for  the  strong ;  to  redress,  as  was  the  splendid  task  of  the 
fabled  knights-errant  of  chivalry,  the  wrongs  of  those  aflflicted 
by  the  hand  of  man ;  to  succour  those  who  have  been  hit  by 
the  pitiless  economic  forces  of  the  age ;  all  the  endeavours 
to  obtain  more  equal  opportunities  for  those  whom  the 
accident  of  birth  has  disqualified  or  the  general  course  of 
events  has  handicapped ;  all  the  philanthropic  work  of  the 
last  century,  and  the  semi-socialistic  experiments  that  are 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        229 

warmly  debated  among  us  to-day  :  all  alike  spring  from  that 
New  Humanity  whose  workings  were  first  visible  in  the 
indignation  of  Cowper  and  Burke  at  the  crimes  committed 
by  their  countrymen  in  the  Orient. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  EUROPEAN  WAR:    1793-1814 

On  a  fair  day  in  summer,  when  the  air  is  joyous  with  the 
laugh  of  children,  the  song  of  birds,  the  hum  of  insects  on  their 
various  errands,  when  the  sweet-scented  hay  lies  new  mown 
but  yet  ungathered  on  the  fields,  and  the  standing  crops 
wave  bearded  in  a  sea  of  green  that  shows  some  touch  of 
ripening  gold  ;  on  such  a  day  the  skies  will  sometimes  darken 
suddenly  as  a  storm  swells  up  against  the  breeze.  Silent 
are  the  children  and  the  birds  as  the  tempest  gathers  force 
and  beats  upon  their  hasty  refuge  ;  the  new  mown  ungathered 
hay  is  ruined  by  a  flood  of  rain  ;  the  sturdy  stems  of  wheat 
and  barley  are  dashed  confusedly  to  earth,  carrying  in 
their  fall  the  truant  scarlet  poppy  that  has  grown  with  them 
in  happier  hours.  The  sun  may  shine  again  upon  the 
morrow ;  but  the  widowed  fields  must  wait  the  wooing  of 
another  summer  ere  they  bear. 

The  familiar  catastrophes  of  nature  are  sometimes  paralleled 
in  history ;  and  such  a  parallel  occurred  in  Europe  towards 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  An  assured  and 
permanent  period  of  peace  seemed  to  have  dawned  upon  an 
unquiet  world  at  the  beginning  of  the  French  Revolution. 
A  more  friendly  sentiment  prevailed  between  France 
and  England  at  that  time  than  had  been  known  since  the 
opening  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War.  The  patriots  of  Paris 
intertwined  the  flags  of  France,  Britain,  and  America,  and 
paraded  the  thoroughfares  crying,  '  Vivent  les  trois  peuples 


230  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

libres  ! '  Moderate  men  looked  for  the  end  of  their  country's 
travails  neither  in  the  despotism  of  the  monarchy  nor  in  the 
anarchism  of  the  Mountain,  but  in  a  constitution  modelled 
on  that  of  England. 

And  across  the  Channel  these  feelings  of  amity  were  heartily 
reciprocated.  The  growing  influence  of  the  New  Humanity 
was  entirely  opposed  to  war  ;  nor  was  there  any  ground  for 
a  war  between  two  nations  which  had  but  recently  settled 
their  quarrels  in  a  comprehensive  treaty  of  peace.  Both 
poHtical  parties  in  Britain  were  united  in  wishing  for  good 
relations  with  France,  if  they  were  united  in  nothing  else. 
'  To  suppose  any  nation  can  be  unalterably  the  enemy  of 
another  is  weak  and  childish,'  cried  the  younger  Pitt  when 
he  was  taunted  with  forgetting  the  traditional  poHcy  of 
England  in  opposing  her  continental  neighbour.  He  argued 
great  things  from  the  popular  risings  that  heralded  the 
French  Revolution  ;  he  refused  to  countenance  the  schemes 
of  invasion  that  were  being  concocted  between  the  royaUst 
refugees  of  the  French  aristocracy  and  the  rulers  of  Austria 
and  Prussia.  And  when  he  found  that  the  leaders  of  the 
revolutionary  party  in  Paris  were  anxious  for  a  better  under- 
standing with  England,  he  gave  still  warmer  welcome  to  a 
change  which,  whatever  its  excesses,  seemed  about  to  end 
the  jealousy  and  strife  that  had  existed  between  the  two 
nations  for  seven  hundred  years.  '  The  French  Government,' 
he  declared  in  Parliament,  '  is  bent  on  cultivating  the  most 
unbounded  friendship  with  Great  Britain.' 

Unhappily  the  tree  of  mutual  goodwill  thus  so  fairly 
planted  and  so  carefully  watered,  bore  none  save  the  bitterest 
fruit.  The  old  distrust  of  France  again  broke  out  in  England 
as  the  Revolution  descended  into  terrorism  amd  massacre ; 
the  old  distrust  of  England  again  sprang  up  in  France  as  the 
suspicion  grew  that  the  British  Government  were  engaging 
in  an  intrigue  to  destroy  the  Republic.  In  a  wild  passion 
of  rhetorical  invective,  Edmund  Burke  deplored  the  loss  of 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STKUGGLE        231 

continuity,  of  gradual  social  evolution  in  France,  '  without 
which,'  he  declared,  '  men  would  become  like  flies  in  a 
summer  ' ;  and  he  saluted  the  leaders  of  the  Revolution  as 
'  the  ablest  architects  of  ruin  who  have  hitherto  existed  in 
the  world.  In  a  short  space  of  time  they  have  pulled  to  the 
ground  their  army,  their  navy,  their  commerce,  their  arts, 
and  their  manufactures.'  In  equally  wild  words  French 
demagogues  declared  that  Pitt's  gold  and  Pitt's  diplomacy 
were  preparing  a  general  attack  on  the  Republic. 

The  suspicions  on  either  side  were  indeed  unfounded. 
But  they  were  none  the  less  sufficient  to  destroy  the  transient 
feehngs  of  amity  between  France  and  England.  The  clouds 
had  gathered  for  the  coming  storm ;  yet  none  realised  how 
terrible  and  how  prolonged  would  be  the  tempest  which 
succeeded  the  fickle  calm. 

Pitt  still  strove  for  peace,  while  the  two  nations  stood 
angrily  fronting  each  other ;  but  when  France  turned  on  the 
world  at  large,  confident  in  the  belief  that  the    ^^^^  q^^. 
whole  world  was  ready  to  crush  her  new-found    break  of 
Kberties,    the   diplomacy    of    Pitt   was   helpless. 
The  French  Repubhc  declared  war  in  February  1793  ;  Britain 
followed  suit  with   a  similar  declaration  in   the  following 
month.     The  fair  hopes  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  died  out 
as  the  cannon  rumbled  again  across  Europe. 

But  fortune  seemed  to  have  turned  from  France.  Her 
armies  were  unpaid,  unfed,  unclothed.  At  home,  all  was 
chaos.  The  civil  servants  had  received  no  salary  for  months. 
The  revenue  was  uncertain.  The  paper  currency  was  dis- 
credited. The  Directorate  had  become  ridiculous.  The  whole 
machinery  of  the  Republic  had  broken  down  in  its  eighth 
year  of  existence.  The  people  were  dangerously  agitated  ; 
and  it  was  hkely  to  go  ill  with  any  one  who  attempted  to 
control  them.  The  last  agonised  cry  of  Danton  from  prison 
was  still  a  warning  to  the  surviving  statesmen  of  the  Revolu- 
tion :     '  They  are   all    brothers  of    Cain.   ...   0,  it  were 


232  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

better  to  be  a  poor  fisherman  than  to  meddle  with  the  govern- 
ing of  men/ 

Other  nations  now  anticipated,  with  some  appearance  of 
probabiUty,  the  dissolution  of  France.  But  they  had  for- 
gotten the  phoenix-Uke  power  of  rising  from  their  own  dead 
ashes  which  the  French  had  shown  in  the  past ;  they  had 
forgotten,  as  Burke  had  also  forgotten,  that  those  who  destroy 
can  sometimes  rebuild  the  fallen  fabric  better  than  before. 

In  this  desperate  crisis.  Napoleon  Buonaparte  became  First 
Consul  of  the  Republic  on  25th  December  1799,  and  within  a  few 
Napoleon  weeks  the  whole  complexion  of  events  had  changed. 
Buonaparte,  The  strong  hand  of  a  master  was  at  once  evident 
in  home  and  foreign  affairs.  A  proclamation  was 
immediately  issued  declaring  the  reign  of  disorder  at  an  end  : 
'  The  Revolution  is  finished.'  The  truth  of  the  bald  state- 
ment was  witnessed  by  a  series  of  drastic  changes.  A  new 
constitution  was  adopted.  The  internal  administration 
was  revised.  The  horrible  festival  of  the  execution  of  the 
king,  which  had  shocked  many  even  of  those  who  were  not 
royalists,  was  abolished.  Every  citizen  was  free  to  quit  or 
return  to  the  Republic  at  his  will. 

With  an  amnesty  for  the  past,  the  future  immediately 
brightened.  The  funds  rose  steadily  from  twelve  to  forty 
francs,  and  at  times  touched  still  higher.  The  State  began 
to  pay  its  creditors  in  money.  A  National  Bank  was  founded. 
The  great  roads,  that  had  fallen  into  decay  during  the  troubles 
of  the  last  ten  years,  were  repaired.  The  brigands  that 
infested  the  country  were  repressed.  Systems  of  canalisa- 
tion, the  last  works  begun  under  the  old  administration, 
were  completed.  The  first  efforts  towards  a  codification 
of  the  laws  were  made.  New  schools,  the  germs  of  the 
present  day  lycees,  were  instituted.  Peace  was  made  with 
the  Church. 

Confidence  was  restored  in  the  army  when  the  French 
troops  under   Buonaparte  were   again   successful   in   Italy, 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        233 

Germany,  and  Austria.  Their  victories  culminated  at 
Holienlinden,  which  laid  Vienna  open  to  the  repubhcan  army. 
Austria  was  forced  to  consent  to  peace,  and  the  Treaty  of 
Luneville  left  the  First  Consul  free  to  turn  his  attention  to 
England. 

He  had  already  made  an  offer  of  peace,  which  Pitt  had 
sternly  refused.     But  Pitt  was  now  no  longer  in  ofl&ce,  and 
in  his  place  was  Addington,  a  man  of  very  different    ^.^^  p^^^^jg 
calibre.     Through  the  defeat  of  Austria,  England    of  Amiens, 
had  lost  her  chief  ally.     France  had  dictated  her 
own  terms  to  Europe.     Her  troops  were  drawn  up  threaten- 
ingly as  if  to  cross  the  Channel.    Popular  anxiety  was  rife 
at  the  prospect  of  invasion,  and  it  was  deepened  by  discon- 
tent and  the  scarcity  of  food. 

As  the  war  stood,  indeed,  the  gains  of  England  had  been 
great.  She  had  seized  every  foreign  colony  that  her  navy 
could  reach.  Her  commerce  had  risen  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
Her  imports  in  1781  had  been  over  twelve  millions  sterling ; 
in  1799  they  were  nearly  thirty  millions  sterling.  Her 
exports  had  been  even  more  progressive.  In  1781  the  total 
had  been  seven  and  a  half  millions  ;  in  1799  it  was  nearly 
thirty-four  millions. 

But  the  enormous  gains  were  balanced  by  the  drain  of  the 
war.  The  best  seamen  of  the  country  were  impressed  for  the 
naval  service.  The  subsidies  to  foreign  powers  were  endless. 
The  increased  taxation  and  the  national  debt  weighed 
heavily.  Much  even  of  the  commercial  gain  was  the  result 
of  unhealthy  stimulation  and  the  necessity  for  war  material. 
On  every  hand  was  heard  the  cry  for  peace,  and  the  most 
level-headed  men  in  the  country  felt  it  better  to  secure  a 
settlement  while  the  advantages  were  still  on  the  British 
side,  rather  than  push  France  to  extremities  and  rim  the  risk 
of  losing  all  that  eight  years'  strife  had  brought. 

Pourparlers  were  accordingly  opened,  and  the  negotiations 
ended  in  the  signature  at  Amiens,  on  25th  March  1802,  of  a 


234  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEKSEAS 

treaty  which  brought  the  conclusion  of  the  maritime  war. 
By  its  terms  England  kept  India,  Ceylon,  and  Trinidad.  She 
restored  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Demerara,  Barbice,  Esse- 
quibo,  and  Surinam  to  Holland  :  Martinique  and  Guadeloupe 
to  France  :  Minorca  to  Spain.  She  was  to  evacuate  Malta 
under  a  guarantee  of  its  neutrality  by  the  powers.  Porto- 
Ferraio  and  Elba  were  restored  to  France,  and  the  latter  was 
to  evacuate  Egypt. 

The  news  of  the  conclusion  of  peace  was  the  signal  for 
outbursts  of  enthusiasm  in  both  countries.  The  French 
were  welcomed  in  London.  Crowds  of  English  gentlemen 
travelled  at  once  to  Paris  to  see  the  new  France  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. Fox  was  received  by  Buonaparte  in  friendly  and  almost 
affectionate  intercourse. 

In  England  the  trading  classes  now  looked  forward  to  a 
reduction  of  taxation  and  an  unbounded  extension  of  wealth. 
And  statesmen  were  again  ready  to  take  up  the  schemes  of 
reform  that  had  perforce  fallen  through  at  the  outbreak  of 
hostilities. 

Across  the  Channel,  in  the  midst  of  the  rejoicings  at  the 
peace,  the  settlement  of  France  at  home,  and  the  extension  of 
her  power  abroad,  there  was  no  thought  save  one  of  gratitude 
to  the  First  Consul,  who  in  two  years  had  rescued  the  State 
from  bankruptcy  and  defeat.  The  future  seemed  serene  ; 
only  one  solitary  philosopher,  remembering  a  parallel  from 
the  ancient  world  that  fitted  too  well,  remarked  :  '  This  young 
man  begins  like  Csesar  :  I  fear  he  also  will  end  like  him.  .  .  .' 

But  the  peace  of  Amiens  was  but  a  truce, — and  a  truce  that 
was  kept  for  a  few  months  only.  At  first,  indeed,  the  settle- 
jj^g  ment  seemed  lasting.     Buonaparte  turned  from 

Napoleonic  war  to  civil  administration,  with  the  determina- 
mpire.  ^-^^  ^^  complete  the  restoration  of  order  at  home. 
His  enmity  to  England  had  apparently  disappeared.  Once  he 
even  went  so  far  as  to  express  the  hope  of  a  cordial  alhance 
between  France,  mistress  of  the  land,  and  England,  mistress 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        235 

of  the  sea.  But  the  overbearing  temper  of  the  Fitst  Consul, 
now  Consul  for  hfe,  and  the  natural  distrust  of  him  in 
England,  soon  shattered  the  peace.  The  Cabinet  in  London 
refused  to  give  up  Malta  until  the  promised  guarantee  that  it 
should  be  left  neutral  was  secured.  The  well-founded  sus- 
picion that  further  plans  were  forming  for  the  reduction  of 
Egypt  and  Syria  seemed  to  be  confirmed  by  a  report  pub- 
Ushed  in  the  official  organ  of  the  Republic,  the  Moniteur. 
Still  other  schemes  had  been  conceived  for  the  extension  of 
French  power  in  India.  On  the  continent,  the  new  govern- 
ments that  had  been  set  up  in  Piedmont,  Switzerland,  and 
Holland  became  mere  tools  of  Napoleon. 

When  the  English  ministers  protested,  they  were  answered 
insultingly  with  a  demand  for  the  expulsion  of  the  French 
refugees  in  London,  the  suppression  of  the  newspapers  which 
criticised  Napoleon,  and  the  immediate  evacuation  of  Malta. 
The  British  ambassador  at  Paris  was  obliged  to  intimate 
that  language  which  might  be  used  to  a  small  power  could 
not  be  addressed  to  the  United  Kingdom,  that  the  right  of 
refuge  on  British  shores  was  inviolable,  that  the  freedom 
of  the  press  was  a  constitutional  maxim,  and  that  Malta  was 
only  held  until  proper  securities  for  its  independence  were 
received. 

But  remonstrance  of  any  sort  merely  exasperated  Napoleon. 
His  tone  became  still  more  warKke.  '  In  less  than  two  years,' 
he  had  said  to  his  companions  after  the  battle  of  Marengo  in 
1800,  '  I  have  conquered  Cairo,  IMilan,  Paris  ;  and  if  I  died 
to-morrow  I  should  not  have  half  a  page  to  myself  in  a 
universal  history."  Since  the  peace,  however,  he  had  seemed 
to  put  away  the  ambition  to  go  down  to  posterity  as  a  great 
conqueror.  But  now  his  temper  changed.  He  was  heard 
to  utter  that  after  all  his  destiny  was  war.  To  the  British 
representative  he  declared,  '  If  you  wish  for  war,  you  have 
only  to  say  it — we  will  make  it  until  one  or  other  nation  is 
ruined.'    In   an   address   to   the   Legislative  Assembly,   he 


236  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEKSEAS 

taunted  England  with  being  unable  to  wage  a  contest  alone 
witb  France.  In  a  general  reception  of  the  diplomatic  corps, 
he  exclaimed  twice  to  our  ambassador,  '  You  wish  for  war  ? 
You  wish  for  war  ?  ' 

With  such  provocations  from  France,  with  a  proud  and 
bellicose  temper  in  England,  a  rupture  became  inevitable. 
The  War  Preparations  were  hurriedly  made  on  both  sides, 
Eenewed,  and,  in  May  1803,  hostiUties  commenced  with  a 
declaration  of  war  by  the  British  Cabinet.  The 
first  step  taken  by  Napoleon  was  to  plan  a  gigantic  invasion 
of  England.  '  We  are  going,'  wrote  the  First  Consul,  '  to 
avenge  six  centuries  of  insults  and  shame  ;  England  is  ours 
...  let  us  be  masters  of  the  Channel  for  six  hours,  and  we 
are  masters  of  the  world. ' 

But  after  waiting  over  two  years,  it  was  found  impossible 
to  cross  the  Straits  of  Dover.  Disappointed  in  the  hope  of 
immediate  success  against  England,  and  stung  to  the  quick 
by  the  European  coalition  which  now  threatened  him  in  the 
rear,  Napoleon  swung  round  his  forces  to  execute  vengeance 
on  the  continental  powers. 

Everything  was  in  his  favour.  He  was  as  uncontrolled  at 
home  as  any  of  the  Bourbons  had  been.  He  was  absolute 
master  of  a  rejuvenated  nation  that  had  always  been  cele- 
brated for  mihtary  prowess,  but  was  now  doubly  anxious  to 
excel.  He  had  already  brought  the  talisman  of  victory  to 
the  army,  and  the  army  and  he  were  unequalled  in  the  world. 
He  had  been  proclaimed  Emperor  of  the  French,  and  his 
imagination  was  busy  with  the  still  greater  title  of  Emperor 
of  the  West.  He  hoped  to  restore,  perhaps  to  increase,  the 
dominions  of  Charlemagne.  In  one  respect  indeed  he  had 
already  surpassed  the  great  monarch  of  the  Middle  Ages  :  for 
whereas  Charlemagne  had  gone  to  Rome  to  be  crowned  by 
the  Pope,  the  Pope  came  to  Paris  to  crown  Napoleon. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  enemies  of  France  were  faced  by  all 
the  difficulties  inseparable  from  a  coalition.    Divided  counsels, 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        237 

divided  conmiands,  and  petty  jealousies  were  visible  every- 
where. Their  military  reputation  was  not  unsullied.  The 
Austrians  had  already  been  defeated.  The  Prussian  The  French 
army  had  declined  from  the  days  of  the  great  Europe^ 
Frederick.  The  undisciphned  Russians  were  in  1803-12. 
no  condition  to  resist  the  flower  of  the  GaUic  troops.  Sweden 
was  isolated ;  the  monarchy  there  had  sunk  far  from  its 
greatness  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  Napoleon  had 
himself  taunted  its  ambassador  with  representing  a  third- 
rate  State.  Italy,  Holland,  Belgium,  and  Switzerland  were 
absolutely  under  the  control  of  France. 

All  went  well  for  Napoleon.  The  victory  of  AusterUtz 
shattered  the  alUance  of  Russia  and  Austria.  A  year  later, 
Prussia  was  overthrown  at  Jena.  At  Freidland,  Russia  was 
forced  to  sue  for  peace.  A  great  battle  at  Wagram  opened 
Vienna  to  the  Grand  Army  of  France.  BerKn  was  entered 
in  triumph,  and  the  king  of  Prussia  became  an  exile  at  Koenigs- 
berg.  Spain  was  invaded,  and  a  relative  of  Buonaparte  was 
set  up  as  monarch  at  Madrid. 

The  whole  continent  was  now  humbled  beneath  Napoleon. 
But  success  only  inspired  the  Emperor  to  vaster  projects. 
He  saw  himself  a  greater  dictator  than  Caesar  or  Alexander 
had  been.  He  was  to  be  the  autocrat  who  hushed  the  strife 
of  warring  nations  into  uniform  peace.  He  was  to  be  the 
human  god  that  crushed  the  petty  kings  whose  day  was  past. 
The  continent  at  last  united  into  the  single  imperial  system 
he  was  planning,  his  hands  would  be  free  to  turn  against  the 
arch-enemy,  England.  The  French  troops  once  in  London, 
he  would  be  master  of  land  and  sea.  The  British  colonies 
and  India  would  fall  into  his  grasp  ;  and  Napoleon  would 
be  in  fact,  as  he  was  already  in  contemplation,  the  ruler  of 
the  world. 

The  arrogance  of  the  conqueror,  an  arrogance  caused  and 
justified  by  his  own  overpowering  greatness,  by  his  stupen- 
dous success,  and  by  the  comparative  pettiness  of  his  foes, 


238  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

whose  ancient  Idngdoms  crumbled  like  paper  at  the  first 
touch  of  his  hand,  appears  often  in  his  despatches,  and  in 
the  epigrammatic  sentences  he  threw  out  in  camp.  After 
Jena,  for  instance, '  All  this  has  been  child's  play.  .  .  .  Enough 
of  this ;  I  am  now  going  to  treat  my  enemies  so  that  I  shall 
finish  with  them  all.'  When  he  saw  the  corruption  of 
Turkey,  '  We  must  have  done  with  an  empire  that  can  last 
no  longer ;  we  must  hinder  its  fragments  from  contributing 
to  augment  the  dominion  of  England.'  When  the  danger  of 
invading  Spain  was  pointed  out,  '  I  shall  find  in  Spain  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules  ;  I  shall  not  find  there  the  limits  of 
my  power.'  And  when  his  ministers  remonstrated  after  the 
battle  of  Wagram,  '  There  can  only  be  serious  events  in  the 
theatre  where  I  am  operating,  and  there  I  am  present  to 
dominate  all.' 

After  what  manner  the  conqueror  would  have  used  his 
power  we  can  only  speculate.  In  some  respects  he  was  as 
great  a  civil  administrator  as  a  soldier ;  his  work  as  First 
Consul  of  France  showed  him  possessed  of  a  genius  for  prac- 
tical reforms,  and  his  gift  for  organisation  was  superb. 

But  the  day  of  universal  empire,  as  of  pure  militarism, 
had  gone  by  in  Europe,  if  indeed  it  ever  existed.  There  was 
no  foundation  for  the  conquests  of  Napoleon  ;  he  had  no 
political  principles  to  guide  him  after  a  victory  had  been 
won.  He  seized  any  alliance  that  presented  itself,  even  on 
the  field  of  battle  with  a  conquered  foe.  He  made  treaties 
successively  with  Austria,  Prussia,  and  Russia  ;  within  a 
few  months  all  were  broken.  The  very  members  of  his  own 
family  that  he  raised  to  vacant  thrones  neglected  his  interests. 
If  he  made  war  with  his  genius,  says  the  great  French  historian 
of  the  times,  he  made  politics  with  his  passions ;  and  the 
remark  is  the  key  to  the  weakness  of  his  empire. 

As  a  statesman,  the  name  of  Napoleon  was  great  before 
the  rupture  of  the  Peace  of  Amiens  ;  but  from  that  time  not 
one  of  his  creations  endured.     The  Idngdoms  that  he  over- 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        239 

turned  were  soon  restored  and  continue  intact  to  this  day ; 
his  two  finest  projects,  the  restoration  of  Poland  and  the 
establishment  of  a  republic  in  Italy,  both  died  with  him. 

The  disastrous  retreat  of  the  Emperor  and  the  Grand  Army 
of  France  from  Moscow  in  1812  was  the  beginning  of  the  end. 
All  Europe  rose  against  the  oppressor ;  and  ^j^^  f  u  of 
although  Napoleon  maintained  a  splendid  struggle  Napoleon, 
of  despair,  France  was  invaded  by  the  allies.  The  ^^^*' 
indignities  that  had  been  cast  on  Vienna  and  BerHn  were 
avenged  when  the  foreign  armies  entered  Paris.  The  Emperor 
consented  to  abdicate,  for  his  position  was  now  hopeless,  and 
France  herself  turned  against  the  man  whom  she  had  lately 
adored.  The  country  resounded  with  curses  on  the  '  Ogre 
of  Corsica  ' ;  there  were  cries  of  '  A  bas  le  tyran  !  A  mort  le 
tyran  !  '  And  men  who  but  a  few  months  before  had  not 
dared  a  whisper  against  Napoleon  now  criticised  his  govern- 
ment, his  ambition,  even  his  military  capacity.  His  statue 
in  Paris  was  taken  down.  In  one  place,  he  was  obliged  to 
change  into  foreign  uniform  to  protect  himself  from  the  mob. 

At  length  he  arrived  at  Elba,  the  one  spot  of  all  his  con- 
quered realms  that  now  remained  to  him.  '  A  new  Sancho, 
I  shall  think  only  of  the  happiness  of  my  island,'  he  laughed 
sarcastically  ;  and  there,  separated  from  wife  and  child,  from 
generals  and  army,  from  empire  and  provinces,  and  the  pomp 
and  panoply  of  power,  he  was  to  remain  a  space, — until  the 
lust  of  dominion  drew  him  forth  to  play  one  last  desperate 
game  with  fate. 


CHAPTER  III 

ENGLAND  TRIUMPHANT  AT  SEA :    1793-1815 

If  Napoleon  won  victory  after  victory  on  land,  he  could  not 
gain  success  for  France  at  sea.  The  fleet  of  Britain  still 
dominated  the  ocean ;   and  instead  of  a  monument  at  Paris 


240  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

commemorating  the  last  and  greatest  triumph  of  the  Emperor, 
we  find  to-day  only  a  column  which  calls  to  mind  the  fact 
that  the  army  at  Boulogne  menaced  England,  and  did  no 
more.  The  medal  that  Napoleon  caused  to  be  prepared  in 
advance,  inscribed  '  struck  at  London,'  to  signahse  his  entry 
into  the  enemy's  capital,  now  appeals  only  to  the  curiosity 
of  the  antiquary.  The  British  Navy  alone  stood  between 
the  British  Empire  and  destruction  ;  but  it  was  equal  to 
the  task. 

It  was,  indeed,  by  no  accident  that  the  navy  was  eJB&cient. 
However  blind  the  nation  had  been  to  its  opportmiities  in  the 
The  Navy  colonies,  it  never  failed  to  appreciate  the  import- 
and  tbe  ance  of  sea-power.  The  victory  over  the  Armada 
^  ^°^'  entered  deep  into  the  heart  of  the  people  ;  it  was 

recognised  with  thankfulness  as  a  divine  providence,  but  none 
the  less  was  it  recognised  how  manifestly  the  tactics  of  Howard 
and  Drake  had  seconded  the  will  of  heaven.  The  lesson  that 
the  safety  of  the  country  centred  in  the  fleet  was  never  for- 
gotten. It  was  enforced  again  and  again  by  the  most  different 
writers  and  the  most  varying  schools  of  thought. 

Bacon  found  that  '  he  that  commands  the  sea  is  at  great 
liberty,  and  may  take  as  much  and  as  little  of  the  war  as  he 
will,  whereas  those  that  be  strongest  by  land  are  many  times 
nevertheless  in  great  straits.'  Waller  sang  that  his  country- 
men were  '  lords  of  the  world's  great  waste,  the  ocean,'  and 
again  that  '  others  may  use  the  ocean  as  their  road,  only  the 
English  make  it  their  abode.'  When  he  celebrated  the  wars 
of  the  Commonwealth,  he  cried,  '  Men  that  fight  so,  deserve 
to  rule  the  sea.'  Pepys  heard  '  with  great  pleasure  of  the 
superiority  of  the  Enghsh  fleet  of  his  time,  over  that  of  the 
previous  century.  To  Dryden  the  fleet  was  '  mistress  of  the 
seas,'  the  '  ancient  lord  '  of  the  ocean  ;  the  proper  care  of  the 
nation  was  '  new  ships  to  build,  and  battered  to  repair.'  Even 
Pope  found  that  realms  were  '  commanded  by  our  oaks.' 
And  Thomson,   in   1739,    wrote   the  national  anthem,   the 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       241 

proudest  expression  of  sea-power,  in  which  he  exulted  that 
'  Britannia  rules  the  waves  !  ' 

The  one  subject  on  which  men  of  every  party  were  united 
was  the  necessity  of  a  strong  navy  for  England  ;  and  it  would 
be  dijQ&cult  to  say  how  great  an  effect  this  united  attitude  has 
had  upon  the  foundation  of  the  empire.  The  fleet  on  its 
side  was  worthy  of  the  trust  reposed  in  it,  and  the  enthusiasm 
inspired  by  it.  Seldom  was  it  worsted  by  an  enemy.  The 
unconquerable  breed  of  sailors  by  whom  it  was  manned  were 
perhaps  no  more  courageous  than  the  enemies  with  whom 
they  fought ;  but  the  recklessness  with  which  the  British 
seamen  entered  the  fight,  the  doggedness  with  which  they 
pursued  it,  the  thorough  mastery  of  their  ships  and  of  naval 
tactics,  in  which  they  were  unequalled,  nearly  always  gave 
them  the  victory. 

They  were  at  home  on  the  water ;  they  loved  their  home 
and  the  country  they  served,  and  detested  the  foe  and  all  his 
doings,  with  a  childlike  innocence  curiously  in  contrast  with 
their  rugged  strength  of  character  and  profound  knowledge 
of  their  profession.  '  Hate  a  Frenchman  as  you  would  the 
devil,'  was  Nelson's  advice  to  those  under  him ;  they  pro- 
bably obeyed  without  difficulty.  Even  the  unwilling  con- 
scripts caught  the  infection  of  duty. 

The  fleet  had  done  worthy  service  during  the  earlier  wars 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  And  in  the  final  great  struggle 
against  France,  when  Britain  could  do  little  at  Trafalgar, 
first  on  land  but  subsidise  other  nations,  it  was  ^^*'^- 
on  the  water  that  her  great  victories  were  won.  At  the  out- 
break of  hostilities,  the  Enghsh  fleet  which  was  watching 
Toulon  was  driven  away  ;  but  the  next  year  the  French  were 
defeated  by  Howe  off  Brest.  Three  years  later  Jervis  damaged 
the  Spaniards  in  the  battle  of  Cape  St.  Vincent,  while  the 
Dutch  were  almost  annihilated  at  Camperdown.  Nelson's 
victory  of  the  Nile  crushed  the  French  schemes  for  the  reduc- 
tion of  Egypt,  and  the  capture  of  Malta  deprived  them  of 

VOL.  II.  Q 


242  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

their  base.  Meanwhile,  the  severe  manner  in  which  Britain 
had  acted  towards  the  vessels  of  non-combatant  nations,  in- 
sisting on  the  right  of  search  and  the  confiscation  of  goods 
carried  in  neutral  bottoms  when  destined  for  the  enemy,  had 
brought  about  a  renewal  of  the  coalition  of  1780,  the  Armed 
Neutrality  of  the  North.  Russia,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and 
Prussia  banded  themselves  together,  encouraged  by  Napoleon, 
to  refuse  British  ships  entry  to  their  ports.  The  coahtion 
hoped  to  close  the  continent  to  British  trade,  in  revenge  for 
the  violation  of  neutral  flags  ;  and  that  measure,  had  it  been 
successful,  would  almost  have  ruined  England.  But  the 
Armed  Neutrality  was  broken  in  the  decisive  battle  of 
Copenhagen  ;  and  four  years  later,  after  unceasing  watch- 
fulness over  Napoleon's  camp  at  Boulogne,  the  crowning 
victory  of  Nelson  at  Trafalgar  destroyed  the  French  and 
Spanish  fleets. 

How  deeply  the  news  of  this  disaster  to  his  arms  disquieted 
Napoleon  is  shown  by  his  wish  to  diminish  its  import.  He 
ordered  the  newspapers  to  speak  of  it  as  a  calamity  caused 
rather  by  the  tempest  than  by  the  British  ;  but  he  thought 
no  more  of  invading  England  till  the  whole  continent  should 
lie  at  his  feet. 

The  invasion  and  occupation  of  England  by  the  Grand  Army 
were  now  no  longer  possible ;  the  victory  of  Nelson  at  Trafalgar 
meant,  indeed,  although  the  fact  was  not  fully  reahsed  at  the 
time,  that  for  the  remainder  of  the  war  the  command  of  the 
sea  by  Britain  was  to  be  undisputed,  and  that  the  only  danger 
to  her  coasts  was  that  a  sudden  raid  or  descent  of  the  enemy 
might  damage  some  unprotected  spot  in  the  absence  of  the 
fleet. 

It  meant,  too,  that  India  was  safe  from  aggression  ;  that 
South  Africa  remained  in  British  hands  ;  that  the  infant 
settlement  in  Australia  could  no  longer  be  menaced  by  a 
French  descent  on  the  Antipodes  ;  that  the  West  Indian 
islands  were  secure.    And  it  meant  that  the  little  outposts 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       243 

of  empire,  those  small  red  spots  that  dot  the  maps  of  the 
two  hemispheres,  and  preserve  the  ocean  road  of  Britain  to 
the  remotest  of  her  possessions,  were  henceforth  safe  from 
molestation. 

And  in  time  it  was  discovered  that  the  last  victory  of  Nelson 
meant  more  even  than  this  ;  for  the  destruction  of  the  French 
and  Spanish  fleets  in  Trafalgar  Bay  gave  Britain  the  undis- 
puted supremacy  of  the  outer  world  during  the  whole  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  OCEAN  HIGHWAY  OF  BRITAIN 

The  great  wars  raged  in  all  the  earth ;  and  the  struggle  for 
empire,  which  began  with  the  attack  of  England  and  Holland 
on  the  Latin  monopoly  of  the  newly-discovered  outer  world 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  drew  to  a  close  when  the  two  great 
Latin  powers  of  France  and  Spain  were  defeated  at  Trafalgar. 
America  and  Africa  had  been  involved  in  these  strifes  and 
rivalries  of  Europe,  but  the  most  bitter  contest  was  that  for 
the  possession  of  Lidia  ;  and  as  the  influence  of  one  European 
nation  after  another  rose  and  fell  in  the  Orient,  the  importance 
of  the  great  ocean  highway  to  the  East,  whose  whole  length 
every  vessel  must  make  ere  it  drops  anchor  before  Calicut  or 
Malabar,  forced  attention  to  the  isles  and  islets  with  which 
that  highway  is  strewn  from  the  Azores  to  Ceylon.  Some 
were  scarce  more  than  rocks,  hardly  large  enough  to  supply 
a  base  from  which  pirates  could  raid  an  honest  trader  ;  others, 
such  as  Mauritius,  extensive,  fertile,  and  beautiful,  were 
worth  possessing  for  their  own  wealth  and  charm  ;  and  one, 
Madagascar,  was  almost  an  empire  in  itself. 

The  conflict  grew  and  widened,  and  then  narrowed  again, 
as  the  dominance  of  Southern  Asia  passed  definitely  into 


244  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

British  hands  ;  but  the  surging  tides  of  conquest  are  recordec 
indelibly  in  the  maps  and  annals  of  the  Indian  Ocean.  Aral 
and  Malay  names  mingle  curiously  with  those  commemorating 
Portuguese  explorers,  Dutch  merchant  captains,  Frencl 
adventurers,  and  English  traders.  A  small  archipelag( 
recalls  Vasco  de  Gama,  the  first  great  Latin  traveller  tc 
cross  those  waters  ;  Mauritius  claims  its  name  from  the  Dutcl 
statesman,  Maurice  of  Nassau ;  the  Seychelles  are  callec 
after  a  captain  in  the  French  East  India  service,  and  almosi 
every  island  in  that  group  is  named  from  an  eighteenth 
century  Frenchman,  The  Keeling  Islands  preserve  th( 
memory  of  an  Enghsh  navigator,  and  many  another  cora 
island  or  isolated  rock  owes  its  title  on  the  chart  to  the  fanc] 
or  the  humour  of  our  old  seamen. 

The  older  or  South  African  road  to  India  has  been  displaced 
but  not  abandoned,  in  favour  of  the  Suez  Canal ;  and  alonj 
both  routes  Britain  has  come  to  possess  the  chief  strategic 
points,  to  guard  that  vast  highway  the  length  of  which  he: 
ships,  the  spermatozoa  of  empire,  beat  daily  to  and  fro  ii 
active,  restless  search  for  the  most  distant  of  our  far  depend 
encies  in  the  utmost  waters  of  the  earth.  The  gates  of  th* 
world  are  in  the  hands  of  the  mighty  from  age  to  age ;  th( 
nation  that  holds  the  solitary  rocks  and  islands  of  mid-ocear 
holds  sway  also  in  remote  continents  and  among  strang( 
peoples. 

But  the  keys  of  the  Indian  Ocean  only  passed  from  Franc* 
to  Britain  when  the  sea-power  of  Britain  towered  above  tha' 
The  Failure  ^^  ^^^  other  countries  in  the  Napoleonic  wars 
in  Mada-  and  the  largest  and  most  valuable  of  all  the  islands 
gascar.  commanding  those  tropical  waters  feU  definitelj 

and  finally  to  France  after  a  struggle  lasting  over  tw( 
centuries.  The  French  won  Madagascar  by  their  pertinacity 
the  British  lost  it  for  lack  of  any  definite  aim.^ 

^  Authorities. — For  Madagascar,  Lyons  M'Leod's  Madagascar  ;  Ellis'i 
Visits  to  Madagascar,  which  must  be  ixsed  with  caution,  since  he  was  i 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        245 

That  great  East  African  island,  of  whose  existence  medi- 
aeval and  even  ancient  Europe  had  perhaps  heard  some  vague 
uncertain  rumours,  was  discovered  by  the  Portuguese  navi- 
gator, Fernan  Suarez,  in  1506.  At  first  nothing  more  was 
known  of  Madagascar  than  that  '  the  inhabitants  were  very 
numerous,  of  simple  manners,  and  had  not  up  to  that  time 
heard  of  the  rehgion  of  Christ ' ;  and  the  Portuguese  did 
httle  more  than  establish  a  temporary  station  on  the  coast, 
and  send  an  expedition  into  the  interior  to  search  for  silver. 

For  nearly  a  century  afterwards  Madagascar  was  aban- 
doned by  Europe,  until  French  and  English  travellers  appeared 
almost  simultaneously  on  the  island.  The  French  East  India 
Company  sent  a  vessel  thither  in  1642  ;  two  years  later  an 
English  settlement  seems  to  have  been  established  at  St. 
Augustine's  Bay.^  But  civil  strife  at  home  often  checks 
expansion  overseas ;  the  place  was  neglected  during  the 
struggle  between  king  and  parliament  in  England,  and 
Madagascar  was  soon  abandoned  by  the  British.  The  French 
stayed  on  ;  and  from  that  time  they  never  entirely  gave  up 
the  hope  of  conquering  the  island. 

But  they  had  many  vicissitudes  to  face  ;  and  internal 
quarrels,  that  recurrent  plague  of  French  colonies,  broke  out 
here  as  in  India  and  Canada.  The  Governor  of  Fort  Dauphin, 
as  the  Gallic  station  was  named,  was  a  Huguenot,  his  associ- 
ates were  Catholics  ;    and  religious  passions  ran  high.     The 

participator  in  the  events  he  narrates,  and  had  good  reason  for  not  always 
revealing  all  his  own  acts  ;  Keller's  Madagascar  is  by  far  the  best  work  on 
the  subject,  if  not  always  full  enough  in  detail.  Mauritius  may  be  studied 
in  Grant's  History  ;  in  an  interesting,  but  not  always  accurate,  series  of 
articles  in  Fraser's  Magazine,  1879  ;  in  J.  F.  Anderson's  Histoire  de 
Protestantisme  a  Vile  Maurice,  Paris,  1903,  invaluable  for  its  special 
subject.  Stirling's  Cursory  Notes  on  the  Isle  of  France  are  of  little  value ; 
useful  sidelights  are  thrown  by  Boyle's  Far  Aicay,  and  Bishop  Vincent 
Ryan's  Journals.  The  latter  deals  also  with  the  Seychelles  and  other 
oceanic  islands. 

^  There  was  at  one  time  an  idea  that  Prince  Rupert  should  engage  in 
the  conquest  of  Madagascar  ;  a  poem  on  the  subject  was  dedicated  to  liim 
and  published  in  1638.  But  that  impetuous  leader  found  other  employ- 
ment in  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  in  England  shortly  afterwards. 


246  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

Governor,  who  had  married  a  native  of  Madagascar,  was 
charged  with  squandering  the  general  funds  of  the  station 
for  the  amusement  of  his  lady  ;  and  whether  true  or  not,  the 
accusation  served  its  purpose.  The  unlucky  ruler  was  over- 
powered and  imprisoned  by  his  subordinates. 

In  the  end  he  regained  his  authority,  and  expelled  his 
captors,  who  migrated  with  some  Malagasy  women  to  the 
island  of  Bourbon  ;  from  which  place  the  children  of  these 
hardy  exiles  spread  to  Mauritius,  the  Seychelles,  and  the 
Amirantes,  establishing  new  French  colonies  of  dubious 
character  wherever  they  went.  Freebooting  became  their 
profitable  trade,  and  for  long  piracy  was  as  rife  in  East  Indian 
as  in  West  Indian  seas. 

But  meantime  other  troubles  had  overtaken  the  French 
in  Madagascar.  Some  of  the  natives  had  been  sold  as  slaves 
to  the  Dutch  ;  and  for  this  act,  which  savoured  of  treachery, 
the  French  paid  dear.  The  aborigines  lost  faith  in  Europeans, 
and  thenceforward  there  was  continual  war  on  the  island. 
Three  times  was  Fort  Dauphin  reduced  to  ashes ;  in  1672 
the  place  was  abandoned. 

Another  century  passed  ;  but  although  the  eastern  seas 
were  filled  with  the  strife  of  French  and  English,  neither 
disturbed  the  repose  of  Madagascar.  Not  until  1774  were 
the  old  French  claims  revived,  when  a  settlement  was  estab- 
lished at  Antongil  Bay  by  the  Hungarian  adventurer  Ben- 
yowski.  This  extraordinary  man  ^  gained  the  complete 
confidence  of  the  Malagasies,  who  elected  him  their  king ; 
he  constructed  roads,  canals,  and  forts  in  the  island  ;  but  his 
success  proved  more  dangerous  than  failure  might  have 
been.     The  Governor  of  the  neighbouring  French  colony  of 

1  Benyowski  had  fought  for  the  Poles  against  Russia,  had  been  taken 
prisoner  and  sent  to  Kamchatka.  His  life  there  was  a  romance ;  the 
Governor's  daughter  loved  him,  he  accepted  and  perhaps  returned  her 
devotion.  At  any  rate,  she  helped  him  to  escape ;  and  after  a  series 
of  exploits,  which  certainly  lose  nothing  in  his  narration,  he  reached 
Madagascar. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       247 

Mauritius  was  envious,  and  intrigued  against  him ;  and 
Benyowski,  tired  of  Gallic  inconsistency,  ofiered  the  island 
to  other  powers,  among  them  being  Austria  and  Britain. 
Neither  accepted  ;  and  thus  Britain  lost  her  second  oppor- 
tunity in  Madagascar.  Benyowski  was  murdered  in  1786 
by  the  French  ;  and  for  some  years  forward  that  nation 
only  maintained  a  few  stations  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the 
island,  all  of  which  were  captured  in  1811  by  the  British. 

Both  Mauritius  and  Bourbon  had  already  fallen  to  England  ; 
and  since  British  influence  was  now  paramount  in  the  Indian 
Ocean,  it  seemed  probable  that  Madagascar  would  likewise 
fall  into  our  hands.  Nor  was  the  desire  to  subdue  the  place 
lacking.  Governor  Farquhar  of  Mauritius  claimed  the 
larger  island  under  the  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris ;  and 
when  the  claim,  as  absurd  as  it  was  impudent,  was  repudiated 
by  the  French  and  withdrawn  by  the  British,  he  took  the 
better  method  of  opening  amicable  relations  with  the  Malagasy 
tribes  themselves. 

In  1817  the  British  agent  in  Antananarivo  took  the  oath 
of  blood  with  the  king  of  the  Hovas.  In  all  things  the  two 
were  to  be  as  brothers ;  the  slave  trade  was  abolished  in  the 
same  year,  the  British  paying  £2000  annually  as  compensation 
to  the  native  monarch  ;  ^  and  the  British  Government  under- 
took the  education  of  twenty  Hova  youths,  ten  in  London 
and  ten  in  Mauritius.  British  missionaries  now  began  the 
great  work  of  converting  the  Malagasies  to  Christianity  : 
the  Gospel  was  preached,  the  Bible  was  translated ;  the 
people  were  taught  to  read  and  write,  to  engage  in  regular 
industry,  and  to  follow  commercial  pursuits.  The  Hova 
army  was  reorganised  and  trained  by  British  officers  ;  in 
1825  Fort  Dauphin  was  captured,  and  French  power  in 
Madagascar  seemed  finally  at  an  end. 

^  The  Acting-Governor  of  Mauritius,  in  Farquhar's  absence,  repudiated 
the  agreement,  to  the  disgust  of  the  Hovas.  The  difficulty  was  soon 
removed  on  Farquhar's  return  ;  but  for  some  time  the  expression  '  False 
as  the  English '  was  proverbial  in  Madagascar. 


248  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

But  British  influence  was  as  yet  purely  superficial.  The 
death  of  King  Radama  in  1828  brought  a  violent  reaction 
against  foreign  ideas,  and  under  his  successor,  Queen  Rana- 
valona,  the  missionaries  and  traders  were  expelled.  The 
spread  of  Christianity  was  ascribed  to  sorcery,  and  Rana- 
valona  declared  that  she  would  put  an  end  to  that  creed  if 
it  cost  the  life  of  every  convert  in  Madagascar.  A  reign  of 
terror  set  in,  and  some  of  the  Malagasies  admitted  that  their 
profession  of  Christianity  was  due  to  political  or  personal 
rather  than  religious  motives.  '  We  were  doing  work  for 
government  service  under  the  white  people,'  said  one  re- 
luctant or  fearful  convert,  '  and  they  would  not  have  liked 
us  if  we  had  not  gone '  to  hear  the  missionaries ;  others 
among  the  young  men  suggested  that  '  to  look  for  pretty 
women  was  our  end  in  going  ;  for  there  were  assembled  the 
cleanly  and  handsome.'  And  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  the  native  beauties  wilHngly  adopted  that  portion  of 
the  rehgious  creed  of  England  which  makes  the  church  a 
convenient  centre  for  the  exhibition  of  milUnery  at  the  stated 
times  of  public  worship. 

In  1861,  however,  the  pagan  queen  died,  and  the  British 
quickly  regained  their  influence.  Two  years  later  a  revolu- 
tion took  place,  in  which  the  rebels  demanded  that  the  Hova 
king  should  break  with  the  French,  who  had  been  favoured 
by  Ranavalona ;  and  when  he  refused  he  was  strangled. 
In  this  afiair  English  intrigues  played  a  not  very  creditable 
part ;  but  the  British  profited  by  the  crime.  Trade  with 
Madagascar  increased,  and  the  Hova  kingdom  was  soon 
described  as  practically  a  colony  of  the  London  Missionary 
Society.  The  French  again  lost  ground  year  after  year, 
and  the  last  vestige  of  their  influence  seemed  to  have  de- 
parted now  that  their  settlements  were  reduced  to  a  few 
insignificant  places  on  the  coast. 

But  the  British  did  not  take  advantage  of  the  discomfiture 
of  their  rivals.    The  Imperial  Government  of  the  day  had  no 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        249 

desire  to  enlarge  its  oversea  possessions.  There  was  no 
popular  demand  for  the  conquest  of  Madagascar.  The  British 
settlers  in  the  island,  too,  seemed  satisfied  with  the  position 
as  it  stood,  apparently  not  realising  that  if  they  did  not  annex 
Madagascar,  another  European  nation  would  do  so.  And  as 
France  gradually  recovered  from  her  defeat  by  Germany 
in  1871,  she  revived  her  old  claims  ;  from  the  year  1883  her 
influence  on  the  island  grew  steadily  ;  and  the  studied  policy 
of  the  British,  who  had  elevated  the  Hovas  from  the  position 
of  the  leading  tribe  into  that  of  rulers  of  Madagascar,  now 
aided  the  French,  for  it  was  easier  to  crush  one  centraHsed 
enemy  than  many  small  foes.  The  island  was  proclaimed 
a  French  protectorate  :  Antananarivo  was  taken  in  1895 ; 
two  years  later  Madagascar  was  declared  a  French  colony, 
and,  on  27th  February  1897,  the  native  queen  was  deposed.^ 

The  chief  prize  of  the  Indian  seas  was  thus  lost  to  Britain  ; 
and  the  French  intention  of  converting  Diego  Suarez,  a  haven 
in  the  north  of  Madagascar,  into  a  naval  stronghold,  caused 
some  Uttle  uneasiness  in  England.  But  of  the  smaller  and 
less  valuable  islands  in  these  waters,  many  already  acknow- 
ledged the  Union  Jack ;  and  the  highway  of  empire  had 
been  strengthened  by  the  acquisition  of  such  places  as 
Mauritius,  the  Seychelles,  and  the  coral  archipelagoes  which 
lie  scattered  between  Africa  and  Asia. 

The  three  islands  of  Mauritius,  Bourbon  or  Reunion,  and 
Rodriguez,   often    called   collectively  the   Mascarenes,  from 
the  Portuguese  traveller,  Pedro  de  Mascarenhas,    Mauritius 
who  discovered    them  in   1513,   were   the    chief    isio. 
centres  of  French  power  in  the  Eastern  seas  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Mauritius  had  been  occupied  by  the  Dutch  in  1598,  on  their 
first  engaging  in  the  Indian  trade ;    but  when  their  power 

^  Considerable  jealousy  was  shown  in  England  at  the  time.  The 
French  conquest  was  a  brilliant  piece  of  work  ;  but  in  1895  Punch  pub- 
lished an  unworthy  cartoon,  representing  a  French  soldier  dying,  and 
rejoicing  in  his  last  moments  that  his  death  v.  ould  annoy  the  English. 


250  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEKSEAS 

began  to  decline,  they  abandoned  the  island  in  1715,  having 
founded  the  town  of  Grand  Port,  now  known  as  Mahebourg. 
A  few  Dutch  names  still  linger  in  the  island  as  rehcs  of  the 
past ;  but  Mauritius  was  occupied  almost  at  once  by  the 
French,  and  for  nearly  a  century  the  He  de  France,  as  it  was 
called  affectionately  by  the  settlers,  was  an  object  of  peculiar 
care. 

There  was  no  lack  of  colonists  for  a  land  so  fertile  ;  and, 
more  fortunate  than  the  ill-fated  colony  of  Louisiana  in 
America,  which  was  founded  about  the  same  time,  both  the 
planters  and  their  wives  were  of  good  character.  Orphan 
girls  were  sent  out  frcf n  Paris  to  Mauritius  ;  and  in  a  healthy 
climate,  with  an  easy,  happy  Hfe,  the  fecundity  of  the  race 
was  found  to  increase,^  while  the  beauty  both  of  the  women 
and  of  their  children  was  admitted  by  all.  Many  fortunes 
were  made  by  sugar  cultivation  ;  ^  there  was  no  lack  of  labour 
from  the  neighbouring  African  tribes  ;  and  under  the  wise 
rule  of  Labourdonnais  and  others,  the  place  prospered  greatly. 
The  city  of  Port  Louis  was  founded  in  1735  by  Labourdonnais, 
who  introduced  cotton  and  indigo,  built  hospitals,  and  con- 
structed an  aqueduct ;  while  in  1768  the  celebrated  Botanical 
Gardens  at  Pamplemousses — the  scene  of  the  pathetic  tragedy 
of  Paul  et  Virginie — were  estabhshed. 

Bourbon  and  Rodriguez  were  hardly  less  happy  than 
Mauritius.  Unhke  the  French  colonies  in  the  West  Indies, 
all  three  weathered  the  French  Revolution  without  mishap ; 
but  during  the  Napoleonic  wars,  and  as  a  consequence  of 
the  predominance  of  British  sea-power  throughout  the 
world,  they  were  lost  to  their  motherland.  On  6th  July 
1810,    twenty   British   vessels   appeared   off   Bourbon,    and 

^  It  will  be  remembered  that  in  less  propitious  circumstances  the 
fecundity  of  the  French  declined  in  Quebec  at  this  period.  See  vol.  i. 
book  iv.  chap.  iv. 

"  If  a  French  planter  were  so  unfortunate  as  to  fail,  he  generally 
emigrated  to  Madagascar,  where  he  cast  about  for  a  Malagasy  woman 
with  property,  married  her,  and  settled  down  as  well  as  he  might 
on  the  proceeds. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       251 

four  days  later  the  island  capitulated  before  an  overwhelming 
force  of  five  thousand  men.  A  few  months  later,  on  6th 
December,  Mauritius  was  likewise  captured  ;  and  Rodriguez 
fell  with  its  larger  fellows.  Bourbon  was  restored  to  France 
in  1815,  and  renamed  Reunion  in  memory  of  the  event ; 
but  Mauritius  and  Rodriguez  remain  British  possessions  to 
this  day. 

Mauritius,  however,  was  not  altogether  fortunate  in  its 
new  masters.  The  island  had  been  much  to  France  ;  it  was 
Uttle  to  Britain.  And  its  prosperity  gradually  declined,  as 
several  causes  united  to  lessen  its  former  wealth  and 
importance.  The  aboHtion  of  slavery  in  1835  checked  the 
sugar  plantations,  and  the  emancipated  negroes  became 
the  owners  of  small  holdings  in  preference  to  working  on  the 
plantations  ;  and  though  Indian  kuHs  were  introduced  and 
found  satisfactory,  1  the  closely  cultivated  soil  presently 
began  to  suffer  from  exhaustion,  and  the  plants  from 
parasites.  The  competition  of  the  sugar-beet  now  injured 
the  growers  of  the  sugar-cane  ;  ^  while  the  opening  of  the 
Suez  Canal  and  the  introduction  of  the  steamboat  diverted 
much  profitable  shipping  which  had  hitherto  used  the 
island  as  a  port  of  call.  Mauritius  could  no  longer  be  justly 
called  the  Star  and  Key  of  the  Indian  Seas,  as  its  Latin 
motto  implied,  when  the  main  bulk  of  shipping  passed  it  by. 

Sanitation  was  neglected,  and  the  island,  formerly  noted 
for  its  salubrity,  became  a  centre  of  disease.  Port  Louis  in 
particular  was  dirty,^  and  subject  to  malaria  ;  cholera  broke 
out  from  time  to  time  and  slew  thousands.     On  such  occa- 

^  By  1863  two-thirds  of  the  population  were  Indian  kulis. 

^  The  striking  analogy  between  the  history  of  Mauritius  and  the  West 
Indies  is  obviously  due  to  similarities  of  climate,  soil,  products,  and 
population.  The  Suez  Canal,  however,  harmed  Mauritius  by  displacing 
it  from  its  position  on  a  main  trade  route ;  the  Panama  Canal  will  give 
the  West  Indies  the  advantage. 

^  '  Only  one-fourth  of  the  excreta  of  the  78,000  inhabitants  of  Port 
Louis  is  removed  ;  the  remainder  is  left  to  be  absorbed  by  the  earth,  or 
is  carried  into  the  open  drains  and  ditches  of  the  town.' — Extract  from 
an  Official  Report. 


252  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

sions  the  timid  took  to  religion  and  the  careless  took  to 
drink  ;  but  the  real  cause  of  the  evil  was  for  long  not  attended 
to. 

The  French  population  remained  true  at  heart  to  the 
country  of  its  origin ;  French  customs  have  been  pre- 
served to  this  day ;  a  French  patois  is  still  spoken,^  and 
French  laws  mix  incongruously  with  EngHsh  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice.  The  descendants  of  the  older  settlers, 
the  aristocracy  of  the  place,  Hkewise  remained  true  to  the 
Roman  form  of  Christianity,  which  their  ancestors  had 
professed  in  France ;  but  protestant  missionaries  from 
England  were  quickly  in  the  field.  Mauritius  was  made  an 
episcopal  see  of  the  Church  of  England,  with  ecclesiastical 
authority  over  the  other  British  possessions  in  the  Indian 
Ocean ;  and  Vincent  Ryan,  the  first  bishop,  preached 
strenuously  and  with  some  apparent  success  to  the  kuU 
immigrants  from  India  and  Africa,  His  converts  were 
many ;  even  his  cathedral  was  a  converted  powder- 
magazine. 

But  despite  the  good  bishop's  toil,  the  field  was  too  great 
and  too  uncultivated  for  any  real  impression  to  be  made  for 
many  years.  A  traveller  discovered  a  Christian  Hindu  who 
still  sacrificed  to  Vishnu,  excusing  himself  with  the  remark 
that  '  the  Blessed  Virgin  is  good,  but  Vishnu  is  good  too  ; 
if  I  could  please  the  Virgin  and  Vishnu  too,  I  should  have  a 
double  chance  of  getting  through  safely.'  And  the  African 
converts  believed  that  the  new  religion  was  rather  a  talisman 
against  the  evils  of  this  world  than  a  passport  to  the  glories 
of  another.  In  their  view,  Christianity  was  desirable 
because,  when  '  cholera  come  to  Indian  boy,  he  no  die  ; 
come  to  African,  he  die.  Indian  boy  baptized,  African  no 
baptized.'     It  was  a  fact  that  the  Africans  had  not  been 

'  The  greater  part  of  Mauritian  literature  is  printed  in  French ;  but 
in  the  present  century  a  change  in  favour  of  English  has  become 
noticeable. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        253 

baptized,  since  it  was  doubted  whether  they  understood 
the  meaning  of  the  new  doctrines  ;  it  was  a  coincidence 
favourable  to  superstition  that  they  died  more  rapidly  of 
the  cholera  than  the  Asiatics. 

The  creeds  of  the  world  might  dispute  their  efl&cacy  in 
Mauritius  ;  but  whatever  ground  the  island  ajEEorded  for 
the  efforts  of  the  religious,  its  material  prosperity  continued 
to  decline  from  year  to  year.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth  century  a  melancholy  picture  might  have  been 
drawn  of  a  once  flourishing  colony  steadily  sinking  deeper  into 
the  mire  of  poverty ;  pauperism  had  increased  until  it  became 
a  serious  economic  problem,  the  taxation  for  the  rehef  of 
distress  was  so  heavy  that  it  aggravated  the  evil  it  was 
intended  to  abate  ;  unemployment  and  disease  were  constant 
factors  in  Mauritius,  and  the  conclusion  became  inevitable 
that  it  was  overpopulated.^  The  total  number  of  its  inhabi- 
tants in  1908  was  376,635,  and  there  was  some  tendency  to 
desert  an  island  which  had  apparently  seen  its  best  days. 

Poor  as  it  is,  Mauritius  has  its  share  of  authority.  The 
island  of  Rodriguez  is  administered  by  a  magistrate  under 
the  control  of  the  Mauritian  Government ;  and  Dependencies 
the  Chagos  Islands,  an  extensive  archipelago  of  °^  Mauritius, 
coral  formation,  are  likewise  ruled  from  Port  Louis.  The 
largest  of  this  latter  group  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  islands 
is  Diego  Garcia,  which  has  a  good  harbour.  It  was  used  as 
a  refuge  for  lepers  in  the  eighteenth  century,  when  it  was 
under  the  control  of  France ;  a  hundred  years  later,  a 
temporary  coaling-station  was  estabhshed  there,  and  it 
became  a  port  of  call  for  AustraUan  steamers. 

The  total  population  of  the  Chagos  Islands  is  rather  over 
a  thousand,  of  which  Diego  Garcia  contains  about  half : 
the  Galagas  and  Cargados  group,  which  are  known  as  '  oil 
islands,'  from  their  produce  of  cocoanut  oil,  are  not  regularly 
inhabited. 

^  See  particularly  the  Official  Report  on  Mauritius  for  1908. 


254  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

More  fortunate  of  recent  years  than  Mauritius,  the 
Seychelles  archipelago,  a  series  of  some  eighty  granitic  islands 
sevcheues  ^^^  islets,  were  originally  discovered  but  not 
and  Depend-  peopled  by  the  Portuguese.  They  were  annexed 
encies,  1794.  -^  ^^^^  by  France  ;  and  the  first  Gallic  colony 
was  founded  in  1768  at  Mahe,  the  largest  of  the  group,  which 
took  its  name  from  Mahe  Labourdonnais,  the  great  bene- 
factor of  Mauritius,  and  in  some  ways  the  greatest  man  who 
has  ruled  in  the  Indian  Ocean.  From  time  to  time  other 
French  planters  followed  the  example  of  the  pioneer  settlers 
from  the  Mascarenes  ;  but  the  Seychelles  were  seized  by  a 
Captain  Newcome  for  the  British  on  17th  May  1794.  So  little 
difference  did  the  change  of  allegiance  make  in  the  circum- 
stances of  the  colony,  however,  that  the  last  French  Governor 
retained  his  position  for  some  years  as  British  agent ;  and 
indeed  the  strife  of  rival  European  nationalities  was  hardly 
noticed  in  these  remote  islands.  French  manners  and 
customs  persisted  under  British  rule  in  the  Seychelles,  as 
they  had  done  in  Mauritius,  from  which  dependency  those 
islands  were  administered  until  1888. 

Prosperity  declined  for  a  time  when  slavery  was  abolished 
in  1834  ;  but  of  late  years  there  has  been  a  considerable 
revival ;  cofiee,  sugar,  and  spices  still  being  grown,  and  both 
rubber  and  vanilla  yielding  valuable  crops.  The  inhabitants, 
who  are  more  French  than  English,  are  both  healthy  and 
prolific ;  the  death-rate  in  1906  was  but  16.48,  and  the 
birth-rate  31.01  per  thousand. 

The  Amirantes,  the  home  of  the  gigantic  land-tortoise,  are 
a  group  of  some  one  hundred  and  fifty  islets  and  rocks  to 
the  east  of  the  Seychelles.  Discovered  in  1502  by  the 
Portuguese,  they  are  named  after  the  great  Admiral  Vasco 
de  Gama  ;  their  geographical  position  necessarily  links  them 
poUtically  with  the  Seychelles. 

The  island  of  Aldabra,  which  with  Cosmoledo,  Assumption, 
and  Astove,  lies  between  the   Seychelles    and    Comoro,  is 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       255 

under  the  administration  of  the  Seychelles.  Its  annals 
may  be  expressed  in  the  terms  of  the  yearly  catch  of  turtles 
and  fish, — a  form  of  history  which  can  be  left  without  regret 
to  local  talent. 

Other  dependencies  of  the  Seychelles  are  the  Alphonse, 
Bijoutier,  St.  Frangois,  and  St.  Pierre  islands.  They  are 
Httle  more  than  oceanic  rocks  ;  and  as  their  names  imply, 
they  originally  belonged  to  France.  It  is  a  matter  of  the 
smallest  importance  to  what  nation  they  adhere  ;  they  have 
no  settled  population. 

The  Providence  and  Farquhar  rocks  may  also  be  included 
in  this  list.  The  latter  is  called  after  the  energetic  British 
Governor  of  Mauritius  ;  the  former  probably  owes  its  name 
to  a  sailor  who  escaped  shipwreck  there.  Both  are  rather 
dangers  to  navigation  than  advantages  to  empire. 

All  these  islands  possessed  a  certain  importance  in  the 
eighteenth  century  ;    all  were  on  or  near  the  great  highway 
to  India,  and  aU  derived  some  advantages  from    ^^^^  Medi- 
their  geographical  position.     Each  was  in  some    terranean 
sort  a  tavern  of  the  eastern  seas,  where  honest      ^^  ^^^" 
traders  or  pirates  refreshed  themselves  during  the  toils  of 
a  long  voyage  ;    and  each  prospered  better  in  the  days  of 
saihng  ships  and  leisured  travel  than  when  quick  steamers 
rendered  intermediate  ports  of  call  useless. 

But  there  was  another  reason  for  the  diminishing  value  of 
these  small  tropical  islands  of  the  eastern  tropics.  The  con- 
struction of  the  Suez  Canal  in  the  year  1869  by  the  French 
engineer,  De  Lesseps,  if  it  did  not  reduce  or  change  the  pre- 
dominance of  British  power  in  the  East,  at  least  worked  a 
profound  alteration  in  the  relative  value  of  the  line  of  com- 
munications by  which  that  power  was  guarded.^  The  centre 
of  gravity  shifted ;   and  the  main  ocean  highway  of  empire, 

1  The  work  Wtas  begun  in  1860,  after  several  years  spent  in  surveying 
and  planning.  Tlie  first  steamer  passed  through  on  28th  September  1869, 
with  De  Lesseps  on  board. 


256  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

instead  of  stretching  as  before  from  Plymouth  to  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  and  from  tiie  Cape  onwards  towards  India,  now 
ran  through  the  Mediterranean,  the  Red  Sea,  and  along  the 
southern  shores  of  Asia. 

The  canal  was  at  first  indeed  strongly  opposed  by  the  British, 
partly  because  it  was  a  French  scheme,  and  one  that  originated 
in  modern  times  with  Napoleon  ;  but  mainly  because  it  was 
feared  that  it  would  damage  the  supremacy  of  England  as  the 
distributing  centre  of  Indian  goods  in  Europe.  Yet  even 
before  the  canal  was  constructed,  England  was  making  more 
use  of  the  Suez  route  to  the  East  every  year.  In  1837  the 
overland  oriental  mail  route  through  Egypt  was  instituted ; 
twenty  years  later  a  railway  was  constructed  from  Cairo 
through  the  desert,  and  steamers  transhipped  their  passengers 
at  Suez.  After  a  while  the  canal  proved  more  advan- 
tageous to  Britain,  as  the  leading  maritime  power  of  the  world, 
than  to  any  other  country,  for  it  shortened  the  passage  to 
India  from  11,379  to  7,268  miles,  and  in  time  brought  Bombay 
within  a  fortnight's  distance  of  London.  And  finally  the 
far-seeing  Disraeh  took  advantage  of  the  practical  bankruptcy 
of  the  Egyptian  Khedive  to  purchase  in  1875  for  the  British 
Government  176,602  shares  in  the  Suez  Canal  Corporation 
for  £3,976,582.  The  purchase  was  criticised  by  political 
opponents  at  home ;  but  it  was  triumphantly  justified  by 
time.  It  gave  the  leading  control  of  the  canal  to  the  British, 
and  proved  an  investment  of  continually  increasing  value. 

The  Mediterranean  Sea  was  no  longer  an  inland  lake  when 
the  Suez  Canal  connected  it  with  an  arm  of  the  Indian  Ocean  ; 
it  became  the  second  stage  on  the  new  oriental  highway. 
And  by  good  fortune  rather  than  through  any  prevision  of 
the  future,  England  had  already  acquired  certain  stations 
in  the  Mediterranean  at  various  times,  some  of  which  had 
indeed  proved  useless  and  were  lost  or  abandoned  after  a  few 
years  ;  but  others  were  permanently  valuable  in  the  highest 
degree. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STKUGGLE       257 

The  history  of  British  policy  in  the  Mediterranean  furnishes 
some  curious  instances  of  vacillation  and  mistaken  judgment ; 
it  afiords  others  of  absolute  and  admitted  failure.  But  in 
any  critical  examination  of  that  policy  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  objects  of  our  statesmen  in  those  closed  waters 
have  varied  from  century  to  century,  as  the  importance  of 
the  Mediterranean  has  itself  varied  from  time  to  time  in  high 
poHtics  or  in  commerce.  In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  the  sole  object  of  the  British  in  the  Mediterranean 
was  trade ;  their  one  unfortunate  acquisition  was  held  with 
the  idea  that  it  might  prove  of  commercial  value.  That 
idea  was  erroneous,  and  Tangier  was  given  up  after  a  few 
years  ;  and  the  acquisitions  of  the  next  century,  in  Minorca, 
Gibraltar,  and  Corsica  were  made  for  strategic  and  diplomatic 
rather  than  mercantile  purposes.  The  large  British  trade 
with  the  Levant  was  carried  on  independently  of  these  pos- 
sessions ;  the  subsequent  occupation  of  Malta  was  similarly 
due  to  poHtics  and  not  to  trade.  In  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  however,  the  pohtical  importance  of  the 
Mediterranean  was  enormously  increased  by  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Suez  Canal :  Gibraltar  and  Malta  became  of 
vastly  greater  value  than  they  had  ever  been  before  ;  and  when 
Britain,  in  addition  to  holding  those  places,  occupied  Cyprus 
in  1878,  and  supported  her  presence  by  a  large  naval  fleet 
and  a  garrison,  she  obtained  a  strong  if  not  an  unchallenged 
position  in  the  waters  which  divide  Europe  from  Africa. 

Our  first  possession  in  those  parts  was  purely  commercial. 
Enghsh  traders  had  built  up  a  considerable  trafl&c  under 
Elizabeth  and  her  successors  with  the  ports  of  Tangier, 
the  Mediterranean ;  but  the  earliest  territorial  1662-84. 
acquisition  of  Britain  brought  nothing  save  disappointment 
and  loss.  On  the  marriage  of  Charles  ii.  to  Catherine  of 
Braganza,  the  city  of  Tangier  was  ceded  to  England  by 
Portugal  as  part  of  her  marriage  dowry  ;  and  high  hopes 
were  entertained  that  it  would  be  of  use  in  extending  the 

VOL.  II.  R 


258  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

Morocco  trade,  and  perhaps  eventually  form  the  nucleus  of 
a  large  territorial  settlement. 

The  illusion  was  quickly  dispelled.  When  the  Enghsh 
garrison  arrived  on  29th  January  1662,  it  found  Tangier  '  very 
little  better  than  a  ruin  of  walls ' ;  ^  and  it  was  discovered 
that  in  evacuating  the  place  the  Portuguese  had  carried  oS 
everything  they  could,  even  to  '  the  very  floors,  the  windows, 
and  the  doors.'  And  almost  immediately  after  its  occupa- 
tion Tangier  was  besieged  by  the  Moors,  whose  assaults  were 
continual. 

The  place  proved  a  very  uncomfortable  heritage.  It  is 
true  that  one  of  the  Governors  of  Tangier  was  sanguine 
enough  to  expect  that  by  '  the  indefatigable  pains  and  labour 
of  our  sojers  and  the  extraordinary  dihgence  of  our  officers  ' 
we  should  '  put  a  pair  of  spectacles  on  (the  Moorish  chief) 
Gayland's  nose  it  would  trouble  him  so  as  to  obhge  him  at 
last  to  a  peace.'  But  the  British  were  badly  worsted  by  the 
Moors  in  1664,  and  other  sieges  followed  in  quick  succession. 
The  Dutch,  too,  blockaded  Tangier  by  sea,  and  the  expense 
of  maintaining  the  garrison  was  heavy. 

A  great  mole  was  built  to  form  a  harbour,  at  the  enormous 
outlay  for  that  time  of  £265,108,  14s.  8|d.,  according  to  the 
official  account ;  and  many  fortifications  were  necessary  to  pro- 
tect Tangier  by  land.  Had  the  place  proved  of  any  commercial 
value,  it  might  have  been  worth  keeping.  But  although  it 
was  proclaimed  a  free  port,  it  was  too  insecurely  held  for  trade 
to  be  carried  on  ;  there  were  '  nothing  but  Moors  and  the  four 
elements  to  be  seen,'  instead  of  merchants  and  cargoes,  and 
in  the  opinion  of  the  outspoken  Pepys,  the  only  use  of  Tangier 
was  '  as  a  job  to  do  a  kindness  to  some  lord.' 

Parhament  now  grew  suspicious,  fearing  that  the  unfor- 
tunate settlement  was  being  used  as  a  nursery  '  for  papists ' 

'  Although  in  that  very  yeai'  a  too  optimistic  oflBcial,  one  John  Creed, 
wrote  to  Pepys,  '  Blessed  be  God,  the  affaire  of  Tangier  is  in  the  best 
posture  you  can  expect.' — Hist.  MSS.  Comm,,  Hodgkin  MSS.,  1897. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        259 

and  '  desperate  popish  officers.'  There  was  probably  no  truth 
in  this  conjecture,  which  would  hardly  have  been  made  had 
not  the  anti-papal  agitation  of  Titus  Oates  driven  England 
to  frenzy  at  this  time.  But  it  was  soon  decided  to  abandon 
a  useless  and  costly  possession.  On  13th  October  1683  the 
proclamation  of  withdrawal  was  read  to  the  garrison  in  Tangier, 
and  orders  were  given  for  the  great  mole  and  the  fortifications 
to  be  demohshed.    By  March  1684  the  place  was  deserted. 

This  first  possession  of  Britain  on  the  north-west  coast  of 
Africa  was  hkewise  the  last.  For  the  next  twenty  years  we 
remained  without  any  foothold  on  the  Mediterranean ;  but 
our  fleets  were  constantly  employed  in  those  waters,  and  the 
necessity  of  estabhshing  a  port  of  call  soon  became  evident. 
But  of  the  two  places  that  were  occupied  for  this  reason,  the 
splendour  of  the  one  was  not  reahsed ;  the  conquest  of  the 
other  was  not  permanent. 

Gibraltar  fell  to  Britain  in  1704  ;  Minorca  in  1708.  The 
importance  of  the  latter  was  well  understood  in  the  War  of 
the  Spanish  Succession  ;  and  the  British  Cabinet  Minorca, 
instructed  General  Stanhope  to  attempt  its  capture.  i708-82. 
'  I  still  insist,'  wrote  the  Lord  Treasurer,  '  that  we  cannot 
winter  a  squadron  in  the  Mediterranean  without  having  Port 
Mahon  or  Toulon.'  Marlborough's  opinion  as  the  first  soldier 
of  the  age  was  of  more  weight ;  and  he  also  held  the  same 
language  in  private  letters.  The  British  force  landed  on 
14th  September  1708,  and  a  fortnight  later  Minorca  surren- 
dered. Stanhope  reported  his  success  to  London,  giving  it 
as  his  '  humble  opinion  that  England  ought  never  to  part 
with  this  island  :  which  will  give  the  law  to  the  Mediterranean 
both  in  time  of  war  and  peace.  ...  I  cannot  but  hope  that 
we  shall  think  of  preserving  Port  Mahon,  and  indeed  the  whole 
of  the  island.'  After  some  months  of  negotiation  with  the 
Austrian  Court  his  wish  was  realised ;  it  was  secured  under 
certain  conditions,  and  at  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  ceded 
absolutely. 


260  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

During  the  next  forty  years  of  peace,  Minorca  remained 
quietly  in  Britisli  possession,  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  France 
and  Spain.  As  a  purely  military  station,  its  history  offers 
nothing  of  interest.  Its  importance  seems  to  have  been 
exaggerated  by  the  statesmen  of  the  age,  as  that  of  Gibraltar 
was  depreciated ;  but  under  Walpole  and  his  successors  the 
garrison  was  neglected,  and  the  Governor  apparently  spent 
most  of  his  time  in  England.  In  these  circumstances,  when 
the  Seven  Years'  War  broke  out  in  1756,  the  French  antici- 
pated and  found  an  easy  conquest.  The  deputy-governor 
was  disabled  by  old  age  and  infirmities,  and  had  to  issue 
most  of  his  orders  from  a  sick-bed  ;  the  chief  engineer  was 
in  the  same  predicament ;  all  the  colonels  were  absent.  The 
total  garrison  was  2800  men,  but  the  fleet  that  was  sent  to 
assist  in  the  defence  was  under  the  command  of  Admiral 
Byng.  After  an  indecisive  action,  he  returned  to  Gibraltar, 
and  Minorca  fell.  The  grief  and  rage  at  home  were  intense, 
but  nothing  could  be  done.  However,  at  the  Peace  of  Paris 
in  1763,  it  was  exchanged  for  Belleisle. 

Still  it  was  an  object  of  envy  by  France.  When  war 
again  began,  it  was  immediately  attacked  in  1781,  and 
after  a  prolonged  and  gallant  defence  surrendered  the  next 
year.  Thus  was  Port  Mahon,  '  the  finest  port  in  the  Medi- 
terranean," finally  lost ;  for  at  the  Peace  of  Versailles  it  was 
not  restored.  Geographically  and  nationally  it  belonged  to 
Spain  :  and  we  can  see  it  now  under  the  red  and  yellow 
flag  without  the  least  regret.  The  subsequent  acquisition 
of  Malta  more  than  compensated  for  its  loss. 

With  Gibraltar  the  case  was  different.  The  Pillars  of 
Hercules,  the  old  boundary  of  the  world,  fell  in  1704  to  the 
Gibraltar,  squadron  with  which  Sir  George  Rooke  had  un- 
1704.  successfully  attacked  Barcelona.     The  Spaniards 

had  left  less  than  a  hundred  soldiers  in  the  garrison,  and 
had  neglected  to  fortify  it.  Eighteen  hundred  men  under 
the  Prince  of  Darmstadt  were  landed  on  the  sandy  stretch 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       261 

which  connects  Gibraltar  with  the  mainland.  They  might 
have  experienced  considerable  resistance ;  but  the  sentinels 
had  gone  to  church  instead  of  on  duty.  While  they  were 
praying  for  the  destruction  of  the  heretics,  the  heretics 
themselves  scaled  and  stormed  the  Rock ;  and  the  too 
fervent  piety  of  the  Spaniards  was  only  rewarded  by  a  forced 
capitulation.  Against  the  wishes  of  the  Prince,  Rooke 
hoisted  the  English  flag,  which,  through  the  vicissitudes 
of  more  than  two  centuries,  has  never  been  hauled  down. 

Keenly  as  the  French  felt  the  loss  of  Calais,  keenly  as  we 
should  have  felt  the  loss  of  Dover,  Spain  felt  the  loss  of 
Gibraltar  more  keenly  still.  Part  of  the  sacred  land,  whose 
proud  boast  was  that  it  contained  no  unbeliever,  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  infidels.  The  same  infidels,  an  upstart 
race  from  the  north,  had  scattered  the  invincible  Armada. 
The  same  infidels  had  attacked  Spain  east  and  west,  north 
and  south,  at  home  and  abroad,  in  port  and  on  the  high 
seas.     The  insult  was  one  to  be  wiped  out  by  blood  alone. 

The  fortress  was  attacked  next  year  by  land  and  water ; 
but  it  had  other  defenders  then,  whose  religious  festivals  did 
not  disorganise  defence ;  and  after  an  inefiectual  siege,  the 
Rock  was  left  to  its  conquerors.  In  1727  another  attempt 
was  made.  The  Count  of  Las  Torres  bragged  that  in  six 
weeks  he  would  plant  his  flag  there,  and  drive  the  heretics 
into  the  sea.  But  by  now  Gibraltar  was  well  fortified  :  six 
warships  were  in  attendance ;  it  could  not  be  blockaded, 
and  fresh  provisions  arrived  constantly  from  Tangier  and 
Tetuan.  After  four  months,  the  second  siege  was  rehn- 
quished. 

The  third,  final,  and  most  important  investment  began  in 
1779.  The  blockade  lasted  for  more  than  three  years.  The 
attack  was  conducted  by  the  allied  armies  and  fleets  of 
France  and  Spain.  At  one  time  33,000  men  and  170  heavy 
pieces  of  artillery  were  in  use  against  it.  In  one  period  of 
six  weeks,  over  56,000  shot  and  20,000  shells  were  fired 


262  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

upon  it.  Floating  batteries  were  used  in  the  bombard- 
ment. Princes  of  the  royal  house  of  France  joined  the 
besiegers. 

The  garrison  were  reduced  to  eat  thistles,  dandehons, 
and  wild  leeks.  The  Governor  lived  entirely  on  vegetables. 
Scurvy  broke  out.  But  still  the  defenders  held  out,  at  one 
time  making  a  successful  sortie,  at  another  receiving  relief 
from  the  English  fleet,  at  another  silencing  a  bombardment 
with  a  counter-demonstration.  At  length,  in  February  1783, 
the  news  of  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  arrived,  and  the  siege 
was  perforce  at  an  end. 

From  that  day  Gibraltar  has  never  been  menaced.  By 
common  consent  it  has  been  left  to  its  masters,  the  key  of 
the  Mediterranean,  the  first  gate  on  the  British  highway  to 
the  East.  Were  this  a  military  history,  an  account  of  the 
fortifications  that  honeycomb  the  majestic  pile,  a  description 
of  the  cannon  that  frown  over  the  stormy  Straits,  would  be 
in  place.  But  except  in  a  technical  work,  such  details  have 
no  interest ;  and  we  may  confine  ourselves  to  noticing  the 
varjdng  poHtical  and  military  importance  of  Gibraltar. 

The  Ne  Plus  Ultra  of  Charles  v.,  the  Mountain  and  the 
Key  as  its  own  emblem  declares,  was  at  first  better  appre- 
ciated in  Spain  than  in  England.  On  the  opposite  side  of 
the  Straits  were  the  Mohammedan  powers  that  threatened 
the  most  CathoHc  country  in  Europe.  Against  these 
Gibraltar  was  a  perpetual  bulwark.  To  England,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  had  at  the  time  no  such  value.  Minorca  was 
considered  a  jewel  of  the  first  water,  Gibraltar  an  expensive 
dependency.  In  1718  Stanhope  thought  of  yielding  it. 
'  Gibraltar  is  of  no  great  importance,'  he  wrote  ;  and  again 
in  1720  he  suggested  that  in  the  event  of  Spain  offering  an 
equivalent  advantage  the  loss  of  the  fortress  would  not  be 
regrettable.  Florida  or  the  eastern  part  of  Hispaniola  were 
spoken  of  as  exchanges.  The  whole  question  was  referred 
by  both  sides  to  the  Congress  of  Cambray  in  the  same  year. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       263 

Even  Pitt  in  1757  offered  the  Court  of  Madrid  that  if  they 
would  assist  England  to  recover  IMinorca  from  France  and 
take  part  in  the  war  as  allies,  he  would  yield  Gibraltar. 
Fortunately  nothing  came  of  these  overtures. 

But  it  must  not  be  too  hastily  assumed  that  the  EngUsh 
statesmen  of  that  day  were  iU-advised  in  their  efforts  to  get 
rid  of  the  Rock.  It  was  kept  up  at  considerable  expense 
at  a  time  when  expenditure  was  constantly  increasing.  The 
Mediterranean  had  declined  in  importance  till  it  had  become 
little  more  than  a  lake.  England  had  no  great  interests 
there.  Nobody  could  foresee  that  the  main  route  to  the  East 
Indies  a  hundred  years  later  would  lie  by  way  of  Gibraltar 
and  Suez.  Even  so,  the  Orient  of  the  eighteenth  century 
had  not  the  same  meaning  for  Britain  that  it  has  now. 
Robert  Walpole  was  far  from  the  days  of  Disraeli  and 
declarations  that  England  was  an  Asiatic  power. 

At  the  present  time  everything  is  different.  Our  interests 
in  the  East  have  grown  until  it  is  of  the  first  importance  to 
secure  the  Hne  of  communication.  Those  travellers  who 
pass  Gibraltar  now  on  their  way  to  Australia,  or  India  and 
the  Far  East,  recognise  how  vital  to  the  empire  is  the  one 
British  possession  on  the  European  mainland ;  and  how 
correct  is  the  view  which  regards  it  as  the  first  Hnk  in  that 
great  chain  of  imperial  defence  which  is  stretched  the  whole 
length  of  the  ocean  highway. 

The  second  is  Malta.  Captured  in  1800  without  a  thought 
of  its  ultimate  use,  it  was  taken  from  Napoleon  by  a  com- 
bined army  of  Maltese,  NeapoHtans,  and  Enghsh. 
Held  by  Britain  temporarily  after  the  peace  of 
1802,  it  was  to  be  given  up  as  soon  as  a  guarantee  was  forth- 
coming from  France  that  Napoleon  would  not  again  seize  it. 
Meanwhile  war  broke  out,  and  at  the  general  peace  of  1815 
it  was  ceded  absolutely  to  England. 

Malta  with  its  two  dependent  islands  was  not,  and  has 
not  been,  an  easy  place  to  govern.    To  us  its  chief,  indeed 


264  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

its  only  use,  was  as  a  fortress  in  the  central  Mediterranean. 
From  that  point  of  view  it  was  of  tremendous  importance, 
which  has  increased  since  the  cutting  of  the  Suez  Canal :  but 
in  a  mihtary  estabhshment  civihans  are  unnecessary,  and  there 
happened  to  be  a  large  population  already  in  Malta,  with 
patriotic  traditions  and  remembrances  of  its  own.  We 
started,  indeed,  with  public  opinion  in  our  favour,  after  the 
usurpation  by  Napoleon  had  put  an  end  to  the  historic 
order  of  knights  associated  with  the  island  for  centuries  ; 
a  monument  erected  voluntarily  by  the  Maltese  attests  the 
welcome  they  gave  us. 

But  a  mixed  race  is  always  difficult  to  rule  ;  and  the  Maltese 
are  mixed  as  are  few  other  people  in  the  world.  Composed 
of  Itahans  and  Sicihans,  with  a  strong  addition  of  Arabic, 
a  touch  of  the  Greek,  possibly  a  trace  of  the  Egyptian  and 
northern  African  nations,  with  a  Spanish  strain  and  perhaps 
a  very  slight  French  tinge,  the  Maltese  are  the  outcome  of 
the  continual  intermarriage  of  every  race  surrounding  the 
Mediterranean.  The  British  tendency  in  governing  the 
place  was  naturally  to  emphasise  the  military  element ; 
and  it  was  therefore  not  long  before  serious  discontent 
appeared.  A  series  of  reforms  carried  out  through  a  number 
of  years  alleviated  the  situation.  The  censorship  of  the 
press  was  abohshed  in  1836 :  the  beginnings  of  repre- 
sentative government  were  granted  in  1849,  and  it  was 
agreed  that  the  native  laws  should  be  administered  by 
native  judges. 

Other  measures  followed ;  but  within  the  last  few  years 
there  has  been  more  than  one  agitation.  That  these 
have  been  well  founded  seems  to  be  indicated  by  the  fact 
that  the  British  Government  has  generally  given  way.  Malta 
is  now  of  considerable  commercial  importance,  and  its  harbour 
of  Valetta  is  not  only  the  headquarters  of  the  British  navy 
in  the  Mediterranean,  but  hkewise  a  port  of  call  for  trading 
ships. 


TEDE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       265 

The  two  neighbouring  islands  of  Gozo  and  Comino  are 
also  British  territory,  under  the  same  rule  as  Malta  :  that 
is  to  say,  a  crown  colony,  administered  by  the  General  in 
command  of  the  garrison,  assisted  by  an  executive  council 
and  a  council  of  government. 

The  almost  forgotten  British  occupation  of  the  Ionian 
Islands  possesses  a  pecuhar  interest,  in  that  it  furnishes  one 
of  the  exceedingly  rare  instances  in  which  we  The  Ionian 
have  given  up  a  place  at  the  wish  of  the  inhabitants  ^^^®^'  i8i4-64. 
without  any  other  reason  than  the  expression  of  that  wish. 
Taken  over  as  a  protectorate  in  1814,  this  group  of  islands 
was  administered  by  England  for  exactly  half  a  century. 
They  were  well  governed,  and  their  prosperity  increased 
almost  every  year.  But  when  we  first  occupied  the  Ionian 
Isles,  Greece  was  still  a  province  of  Turkey ;  within  a  few 
years  afterwards  that  country  had  recovered  its  historic 
freedom.  The  noble  desire  for  national  unity  was  fermenting 
in  the  popular  mind  ;  and  the  Ionian  islanders  naturally 
desired  to  share  the  fortunes  of  their  mother  country  rather 
than  continue  under  foreign  rule.  W.  E.  Gladstone  went 
out  as  commissioner  to  investigate  the  situation,  and  as  a 
result  of  his  recommendations  the  islands  were  ceded  freely 
to  the  kingdom  of  Greece  in  1864.  The  decision  excited 
some  criticism,  but  there  can  be  Httle  doubt  that  it  was 
justified  in  every  way. 

Two  other  islands  in  the  Mediterranean  were  the  occasion 
of  British  intervention  or  occupation  during  the  long  wars. 
An  attempt  was  made  to  assuage  the  troubles  Corsica,  1794. 
of  Sicily  in  1812  by  granting  its  people  a  consti-  siciiy,  1812. 
tution  under  the  protection  of  England ;  but  that  inestim- 
able boon  was  received  with  profound  indifference,  and  both 
the  constitution  and  the  protection  of  England  were  with- 
drawn when  experience  showed  that  neither  was  appreciated. 
The  Sicilians  had  indeed  suffered  many  things  imder  many 
rulers  ;  but  Britain  was  the  wrong  doctor  to  cure  the  chrom'c 


266  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEESEAS 

political  maladies  of  that  island,  and  the  prescription  which 
she  administered  proved  the  wrong  remedy. 

Our  experience  in  Corsica  was  equally  unfortunate.  In 
the  stormy  eighteenth-century  pohtics  of  that  island,  one 
party  declared  for  England  and  another  for  France ;  and 
when  the  former  faction  gained  the  upper  hand,  George  iii. 
was  acknowledged  as  king  on  17th  June  1794.  The  place  was 
ruled  for  a  time  by  the  first  Earl  of  Minto,  who  in  later  years 
became  Governor-General  of  India ;  but  the  partisans  of 
France  made  headway,  and  the  ungrateful  islanders,  who 
were  as  remiss  as  the  Sicihans  in  their  appreciation  of  the 
blessings  of  the  constitution  which  was  given  them,  revolted 
and  declared  in  favour  of  the  Gallic  Republic.  The  British 
shortly  afterwards  abandoned  the  island,  and  the  Corsicans 
appear  to  have  watched  their  departure  with  easy  equanimity. 

Of  more  significance  than  these  petty  episodes  was  the 

British  occupation  of  Cyprus ;  ^   but  that  occupation,  while 

not  without  interest  in  the  annals  of  the  ocean 

'  highway  of  Britain,  was  but  an  incident,  a  recent 

and  relatively  unimportant  incident,  in  the  long  and  varied 

history  of  the  island.     Originally  a  Greek  colony,  Cyprus  has 

^  For  Cyprus,  the  Yearly  Handbook  of  Cyj)rus ;  Cyprus  as  I  saw  It  in 
1879,  by  Sir  S.  ]3aker  ;  Stewart,  My  Experience  of  the  Island  of  Cyprus; 
Fyler's  Development  of  Cyprus,  a  very  useful  work  ;  and  George  Chacalli, 
Cyprus  Under  British  Rule  (printed  at  Nicosia),  expressing  the  extreme 
Cypriot  view. 

For  the  other  possessions,  Captain  Hunter's  Account  of  the  British 
Settlement  of  Aden,  a  standard  work  ;  for  Perim,  The  British  Outpost  of 
Perim,  in  the  Records  of  the  Bombay  Government,  No.  149.  There  is  an 
article  on  Socotra  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  June  1897,  by  Theodore 
Bent ;  see  also  the  Life  and  Letters  of  St.  Fraiicis  Xavier,  by  H.  J. 
Coleridge,  S.J.,  and  a  pamphlet  by  Phil  Robinson,  dated  1878.  The 
smaller  islands  are  mentioned  in  the  Colonial  Office  List  and  the  valuable 
yearly  Official  Reports.  For  the  Maldives,  see  a  paper  by  H.  C.  Bell, 
written  for  the  Indian  Government  in  1881,  and  the  Voyage  of  Francis 
Pyrard,  published  by  the  Hakluyt  Society ;  for  the  Andaman  Islands, 
Lieutenant  C.  H.  Turner's  Notes  on  the  Andaman  Islands  (Rangun, 
1897),  and  Colonel  R.  C.  Temple  on  the  Penal  System,  in  the  Journal 
of  the  Society  of  Arts,  24th  February  1899.  For  the  Keeling  Islands, 
Keller's  book  on  the  Islands  of  the  Indian  Oceaw,  and  Darwin's  Voyage 
of  H. M.S.  Beagle. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE         267 

passed  from  age  to  age  to  one  nationality  after  another,  its 
strategic  position  always  rendering  it  valuable  to  the  state 
that  holds  the  command  of  the  eastern  Mediterranean,  It 
was  a  province  of  the  Roman  and  Byzantine  Empires  ; 
it  was  held  by  Crusaders  and  Knights  Templars  as  a 
vantage  ground  from  which  to  conquer  Jerusalem ;  by 
Venetians  and  Genoese  as  a  base  for  trade ;  and  finally 
it  fell  to  the  Turks  when  the  Ottoman  Empire  was  founded. 

The  first  appearance  of  the  Enghsh  in  Cyprus  as  a  sove- 
reign power  was  a  matter  of  a  few  days  only.  In  the  year 
1191  the  island  was  seized  by  Richard  i.,  as  compensation 
for  an  injury  to  that  impetuous  prince  ;  and  there  he  married 
his  consort  Berengaria.  But  the  crusades  claimed  him  in 
Palestine  ;  and,  wearied  of  a  possession  that  was  both  use- 
less and  embarrassing,  he  parted  with  Cyprus  to  the 
Templars, 

After  many  vicissitudes  and  misfortunes,  the  island  again 
passed  to  Britain  in  virtue  of  a  convention  with  Turkey  in 
1878.  It  was  to  be  occupied  and  administered  by  the  British 
so  long  as  Russia  maintained  her  conquests  in  Armenia — 
conquests  that  are  now  apparently  permanent.  But  Cyprus 
nominally  remained  a  Turkish  possession,  and  a  yearly  tribute 
was  to  be  paid  by  the  island  to  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

On  12th  July  1878,  the  British  flag  was  hoisted  on  the  ram- 
parts of  the  capital  city  of  Nicosia,  amid  manifestations  of 
joy  from  the  Greek  population  ;  and  many  hopes  were  formed, 
both  by  the  British  from  their  new  territory,  and  by  the 
Cypriots  from  their  new  masters.  Something  of  the  halo  of 
romance,  with  which  the  poets  of  Greece  had  surrounded 
the  island,  still  hngered  before  Enghsh  eyes  ;  the  land  of 
flowers,  the  chosen  abode  of  the  goddess  of  love,  might  yet 
prove  an  acquisition  of  good  omen  to  the  great  modern  empire 
of  Britain. 

But  misfortunes  dogged  Cyprus  almost  from  the  first.  The 
British  control  over  Egypt  soon  rendered  the  island  of  small 


268  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

importance.  The  yearly  tribute  of  £81,752,  which  was  pay- 
able to  Turkey,  was  a  heavy  tax  which  Cyprus  could  not 
always  meet.  The  British  Treasury  had  often  to  come  to 
its  aid  ;  and  in  twenty  years  more  than  half  a  miUion  sterUng 
was  contributed  from  this  source.  And  the  uncertainty  of 
the  tenure  by  which  the  island  was  held  made  capitahsts 
hesitate  before  embarking  money  on  schemes  for  its  develop- 
ment. It  was  rumoured  that  Cyprus  was  to  be  given  back 
to  Turkey  ;  an  agitation  sprang  up  among  the  Cypriot  Greeks 
for  its  cession  to  Greece,  and  some  persons  in  England  favoured 
the  idea.i  It  was,  indeed,  emphatically  stated  by  succes- 
sive British  Governments  that  there  was  no  intention  whatever 
of  abandoning  the  island ;  but  one  of  the  many  disadvan- 
tages of  the  fluctuating  foreign  policy  of  the  time  lay  in  the 
fact  that  a  new  administration  was  not  bound  by  the  declara- 
tions of  its  predecessors.  The  uncertainty  continued,  and 
the  island  languished. 

Nevertheless,  although  Chamberlain  admitted  when 
Colonial  Secretary  that  England  had  not  done  all  she  might 
for  Cyprus,^  many  real  improvements  were  in  fact  effected. 
The  island  suffered  alternately  from  floods  and  droughts ; 
and  in  1897  it  was  decided  to  spend  £60,000  on  irrigation  and 
reservoirs.  Plagues  of  locusts  infested  the  land,  and  often 
destroyed  every  scrap  of  vegetation  and  even  human  life,^ 
and  drastic  steps  were  taken  to  stamp  out  the  pest.  A  locust 
tax  was  imposed,  and  rewards  were  offered  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  insects  ;  in  1881  over  1300  tons  of  eggs  were 
destroyed,  and  two  years  later  the  almost  incredible  number 

1  A  meeting  was  held  at  the  St.  James's  Hall  in  London  in  1897  in 
support  of  the  cession  of  Cyprus  to  Greece. 

-  But  in  the  parliamentary  debate  on  8th  August  1898,  he  stated  that 
'  he  would  not  ask  the  House  to  be  liberal  to  Cyprus  if  he  thought  it  were 
not  a  good  investment.'  A  few  years  later,  however,  the  London  Globe 
still  spoke  of  CyjDrus  as  a  derelict  dependency. 

^  A  fifteenth-century  priest  was  suffocated  by  the  very  locusts  he  was 
cursing.  I  leave  it  to  the  learned  in  such  matters  to  determine  whether 
the  potency  of  the  curses,  or  the  orthodoxy  of  the  locusts  was  at  fault. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WOELD-STRUGGLE       269 

of  200,000  million  live  locusts  were  captured.     In  due  course 
these  measures  proved  effectual. 

All  the  roads  of  the  colony  as  well  as  the  railways  were 
of  British  construction.  No  printing  press  had  existed  in 
1878 ;  within  thirty  years  one  Turkish  and  ten  Greek  news- 
papers were  published.  The  few  schools  were  enlarged  and 
improved ;  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century 
there  were  392  Christian  and  160  Moslem  primary  schools 
in  the  island.  And  the  old  corrupt  law  courts  were  reformed, 
and  some  measure  of  self-government  introduced.  But 
many  of  the  Greeks  of  the  islands  were  and  are  discontented, 
even  with  the  improved  condition  of  the  administration  ; 
and  the  British  in  like  manner  have  been  somewhat  dis- 
appointed with  their  Hmited  success. 

If  the  growing  British  control  over  Egypt  was  a  misfortune 
to  Cyprus,  our  dominance  of  the  north-east  African  coast 
strengthened  the  ocean  highway  of  empire  ;  and  The  Red 
the  southern  entrance  of  the  Red  Sea  was  already  ^^*- 
secured  by  the  possession  of  a  second  Gibraltar.  The  great 
Portuguese  conqueror,  Albuquerque,  declared  that  four  places 
were  essential  to  the  nation  which  held  dominion  in  the  Orient, 
— Aden,  Ormuz,  Diu,  and  Goa.  The  first  of  these — which 
the  Portuguese  themselves  held  but  for  four  years,  from  1547 
to  1551 — though  situated  at  the  far  end  of  a  vast  desert 
peninsula,  though  arid  and  indeed  almost  rainless,  had  neces- 
sarily been  an  important  centre  of  commerce  since  traffic  first 
existed  between  Europe  and  Asia.  To  Aden  came  vessels 
from  Suez,  from  the  East  African  coast,  from  Persia,  India, 
and,  according  to  Hakluyt,  even  from  China.  Aden  was 
known,  at  least  by  name,  to  the  Greeks,  perhaps  also  to  the 
Jews  ;  a  vague  but  not  impossible  tradition  declares  that  it 
was  once  occupied  by  the  Romans.  It  was  visited  by  Marco 
Polo ;  and  it  had  been  admired  by  the  Bolognese  traveller, 
Ludovico  di  Varthema,  who  declared  it  '  the  strongest  city 
that  was  ever  seen  on  level  ground.'    But  Aden  lost  its  old 


270  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

importance  when  Indo-European  trade  deserted  it  for  the 
new  South  African  route,  and  by  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  place  was  in  a  half-ruined  condition. 

But  the  Enghsh  had  already  had  deaHngs  with  the  sultans 

who  controlled  Aden.     One  of  the  first  voyages  of  the  East 

India  Company,  in  1609,  was  to  Aden  ;    in  1618 

Aden   1839.  jt      ./ '  '  ' 

a  trading  station  was  estabKshed  at  Mocha.     But 

no  poUtical  influence  was  secured,  or  even  perhaps  desired, 
in  Arabia,  until  the  year  1802  when,  under  Wellesley's  energetic 
rule  in  India,  a  treaty  was  made  with  the  Sultan  of  Aden. 
A  coahng  depot  was  projected  there  in  1827,  but  the  idea 
was  abandoned ;  eleven  years  later,  however,  when  some 
shipwrecked  British  sailors  were  insulted  and  outraged  by 
the  Sultan,  he  was  forced  to  sell  his  territory  in  compensa- 
tion to  the  Enghsh.  The  wretched  chief  wished  to  retain 
his  authority  over  his  old  subjects  after  the  cession  ;  but  this 
was  refused,  and  Aden  was  occupied  by  the  British  on  16th 
January  1839. 

The  place  was  declared  a  free  port  in  1850,  and  its  trade 
quickly  revived,  both  on  that  account  and  by  reason  of  the 
opening  of  the  Suez  Canal.  The  population,  which  had  been 
but  6000  in  1839,  rose  steadily  until  in  1901  it  was  43,974 ; 
and  fresh  territory  became  necessary  to  provide  for  the  motley 
Adenese  population  of  Arabs,  SomaUs,  and  Jews.  In  1868, 
Little  Aden,  the  western  arm  of  the  harbour,  was  purchased 
with  the  island  of  Sirah  ;  fourteen  years  later  an  inland  tract 
of  country  was  bought,  which  gave  water  and  salt  pits  to  the 
place ;  and  in  1888  a  third  extension  was  made.  By  this 
time  the  original  small  protectorate  was  enlarged  to  sixty- 
six  square  miles  ;  and  the  old  town,  which  had  been  confined 
to  the  crater  of  an  extinct  volcano,  had  become  a  coaUng 
station,  a  garrison,  and  a  fortress  of  first-rate  importance. 

British  Somahland,  which  lies  on  the  African  coast  over 
against  Aden,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Straits  of  Bab-el-Mandeb, 
those  sorrowful  waters  which  the  Arabs  know  as  the  Gate  of 


THE  END  0F>  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        271 

Tears,  belongs  to  the  history  of  the  British  in  Africa  rather 
than  the  annals  of  the  ocean  highway  beside  which  it  hes  ; 
but  the  dependencies  of  Perim,  Socotra,  and  the  petty  Kuria 
Maria  Islands  all  owe  such  importance  as  they  may  possess 
to  their  position  on  the  direct  road  to  the  Orient, 

The  small  isle  of  Perim,  at  the  entrance  of  the  Red  Sea,  is 
a  bare  dry  rock  some  five  miles  square,  on  whose  low  hills 
grows  a  species  of  coarse  grass  which  afiords  sustenance  only 
to  a  few  miserable  goats.  But  strategically  the  place  is  im- 
portant, and  for  that  reason  it  was  occupied  by  the  British 
during  a  few  months  in  1799,  while  Napoleon  was  threaten- 
ing India  from  Egypt.  Abandoned  shortly  afterwards,  it 
was  again  taken  in  1857. 

A  hghthouse  was  erected,  and  in  time  Perim  became  a 
cable  station  and  coaling  depot.  It  now  possesses  a  fortress, 
and  is  garrisoned  by  a  small  company  of  Indian  infantry. 
But  Hfe  on  so  confined  and  bare  a  spot,  where  all  suppHes 
must  be  imported,  and  water  is  only  obtainable  from  con- 
densers, is  extremely  tedious ;  and  the  troops  are,  if  possible, 
relieved  every  few  months. 

Perim  is  governed  from  Aden  ;  the  next  landmarks  on 
the  ocean  highway,  Socotra  and  its  dependencies  of  Abdal 
Kute  and  Bromers,  are  administered  from  Bombay. 

The  island  of  Socotra,  which  was  known  to  the  Greeks  as 
Dioscorides — the  legend  of  an  ancient  Greek  colony  there 
survived  for  centuries  among  Arab  geographers —  socotra, 
was  imagined  by  them  to  be  an  island  abode  of  i^^^- 
bhss.  A  very  difierent  account  was  given  by  St.  Francis 
Xavier,  the  great  evangelist  who  visited  Socotra  in  1542, 
thirty-six  years  after  its  discovery  by  Tristan  da  Cunha. 
'  A  wild  country,"  he  wrote,  '  with  no  produce,  no  corn,  no 
rice,  no  millet,  no  wine,  no  fruit;  in  short,  altogether  sterile 
and  arid,  except  that  it  has  plenty  of  dates,  and  also 
abounds  in  cattle.  The  island  is  exposed  to  great  heat 
from  the  sun ;    the  people  are  Christians   in  name  rather 


272  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

than  in  reality,  wonderfully  ignorant  and  rude  ;  they  can- 
not read  or  write.'  The  description  was  not  inaccurate  ; 
but  the  Nestorian  Christianity  of  the  inhabitants,  a  mixed 
breed  of  Arabs,  Somahs,  and  a  few  Europeans,  gave 
way  later  before  Islam  or  paganism.  Socotra  became  a 
favourite  station  of  corsairs  and  pirates  ;  and,  to  check  their 
depredations,  British  Indian  troops  occupied  the  place  for 
a  few  months  in  1835,  but  eventually  withdrew.  In  1876, 
however,  the  Sultan  of  Kishn,  the  owner  of  the  island,  agreed 
not  to  permit  any  foreign  power  to  interfere  in  the  afiairs 
of  the  island ;  ten  years  later  it  was  placed  under  British 
protection. 

The  Kuria  Maria  Islets,  which  he  ofi  the  south  coast  of 
Arabia,  were  discovered  in  1503  by  the  Portuguese.  Sterile 
and  bare  as  the  neighbouring  mainland,  their  sole  product 
is  guano  ;  but  they  were  ceded  to  Britain  in  1854  by  the 
Sultan  of  Muscat  for  the  purpose  of  landing  the  Red  Sea  cable. 
They  still  remain  integral  but  insignificant  portions  of  the 
empire. 

The  long  chain  of  coral  islands  known  as  the  Maldives, 
where  endless  palms  fringe  endless  lagoons,  has  passed 
Maldives  from  one  European  nation  to  another  as  pohtical 
etc.,  1795.  power  waxed  or  waned  in  the  Orient.  Successively 
Portuguese,  French,  and  Dutch  possessions,  they  fell  with 
Ceylon  to  the  British  in  1795.  But  the  principle  of  non- 
intervention in  the  local  affairs  of  the  archipelago  has  been 
adopted.  A  petty  sultan  still  reigns  over  twelve  thousand 
petty  isles,  and  Male  remains  the  seat  of  government ;  an 
annual  tribute  is  paid  to  the  authorities  in  Ceylon  ;  and  that 
country  furnishes  a  market  for  the  products  of  the  Maldives. 
The  natives  of  the  islands,  who  are  followers  of  Islam,  are 
celebrated  for  the  kindness  with  which  they  succour  the 
shipwrecked  strangers  who  are  cast  upon  their  dangerous 
coasts  from  time  to  time. 

The  Laccadive  Isles  differ  from  the  Maldives,  to  the  north 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        273 

of  which  they  lie,  in  being  less  productive.  The  rehgion 
and  character  of  the  natives  is  similar,  but  they  are  governed 
from  Madras. 

On  the  other  side  of  India  lie  the  Andaman  Isles,  to  which 
are  attached  Cocos.  Consisting  of  four  large  and  many 
smaller  volcanic  groups,  their  total  area  is  some  2700  square 
miles,  most  of  which  is  mountainous  and  covered  with  dense 
tropical  vegetation.  Hot,  damp,  and  malarious,  the 
Andamans  have  the  reputation  of  being  extraordinarily 
unhealthy ;  but  the  death-rate  of  the  Indians  transported 
thither  is  not  more  than  30' 7  per  thousand,  while  the  con- 
dition of  the  British  troops  is  better  than  at  Rangun. 

The  islands  were  taken  in  1789  by  the  East  India  Company, 
and  a  settlement  was  estabhshed  at  Port  Blair,  then  called 
Port  CornwalHs.  Three  years  later  this  was  abandoned  as 
too  unhealthy ;  but  in  1849  a  Captain  Shaw  attempted  to 
found  a  colony  on  Great  Coco.  Again  the  climate  proved 
deadly ;  a  third  of  his  people  died ;  those  who  survived 
suffered  terrible  hardships.  In  1857,  however,  the  Andamans 
were  occupied  by  the  Indian  Government  as  a  penal  station  ; 
Indian  natives  convicted  of  grave  crimes,  and  sentenced  to 
long  terms  of  imprisonment,  were  sent  thither ;  and  the 
place  has  ever  since  been  used  for  that  purpose.  Some  ten 
thousand  convicts  are  detained  there,  guarded  by  British  and 
natives  troops  and  pohce.  The  discipline  is  severe  and 
possibly  reformative  ;  after  some  years  the  offender  is  per- 
mitted a  modified  freedom,  and  is  henceforth  known  as  a 
'  self-supporter  ' ;  should  he  not  abuse  his  privileges,  he  is 
allowed  in  his  declining  years  to  return  to  his  own  country.^ 

The  more  southerly  Nicobar  Islands,  which  are  divided  into 
two  groups,  the  Great  and  Little,  are  administered  by  the 
Chief  Commissioner  of  the  Andamans. 

1  The  Andaman  aborigines,  an  inoffensive  but  suspicious  people,  have 
the  distinction  of  being  probably  the  most  intensely  black  race  in  the 
world.     (Portman.) 

VOL.  II.  S 


274  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

The  group  of  islets  known  as  Keeling,  which  lie  in  the 
Indian  Ocean  south  of  Sumatra,  and  whose  whole  surface  is 

line  ^^*  eight  miles  square,  were  discovered,  accord- 
islands,  ing  to  Purchas,  by  the  English  mariner  William 
^^^^'  KeeHng,  on  his  way  home  from  the  Moluccas  in 

1609.  Though  fertile  and  healthy,  they  remained  unpeopled 
until  1823,  when  an  Englishman  of  dubious  or  eccentric 
character  named  Hare  settled  on  one  of  the  group  with 
a  few  Malay  slaves,  who  formed  the  harem  and  the  court 
of  this  imitation  oriental  despot.  Hare's  project  failed ;  but 
the  old  Scottish  family  of  Clunies-Ross  occupied  another 
of  the  KeeHng  Isles  about  this  time ;  and  since  then,  despite 
the  terrific  tropical  storms  which  often  threaten  to  swallow 
these  petty  intruders  on  the  vast  expanse  of  waters,  the 
lonely  group  has  never  been  uninhabited. 

In  view  of  their  comparative  proximity  to  the  Dutch 
colony  of  Sumatra,  the  Dutch  at  one  time  advanced  a 
tentative  claim  to  their  possession ;  but  the  islands  were 
formally  annexed  by  Britain  in  1856.  The  Ross  family, 
however,  continues  to  hold  patriarchal  sway  in  local  affairs  ; 
and  neither  poUce  nor  soldiers  are  required  to  maintain  their 
authority.  Crime  is  rare,  and  money  does  not  exist  in  this 
primitive  but  happy  community ;  the  only  currency  that  is 
known  are  the  sheepskin  notes  issued  by  the  Rosses.^ 

By  far  the  most  noteworthy  event  in  the  insignificant 
Keeling  annals  was  the  visit  of  Charles  Darwin  in  1836.  He 
found  the  islands  '  not  very  prosperous,  and  with  rather  a 
desolate  aspect,  no  gardens  to  show  signs  of  care  and  culti- 
vation.' But  these  typical  lagoon  atolls  furnished  him  with 
much  valuable  scientific  information,  which  bore  fruit  in 
his  work,  Geological  Observations  on  Coral  Reefs. 

An  attempt  was  made  to  colonise  Christmas  Island,  which 

^  An  obituary  notice  of  George  Clunies-Ross,  and  a  good  account  of 
the  colonisation  of  these  islands,  appeared  in  the  London  Times  on  8th 
July  1910. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       275 

was  first  visited  by  Dampier  two  centuries  before,  from  the 
Keelings.  It  was  eventually  occupied  by  the  British  in 
1888  ;  twelve  miles  long  and  five  broad,  it  is  thickly  wooded, 
and  possesses  valuable  deposits  of  phosphate  of  lime. 

Such  are  the  various  stations  which  mark  the  ocean  high- 
way to  the  East,  from  Gibraltar  to  India  and  Australia.  Indi- 
vidually they  are  often  insignificant,  perhaps  even  worthless  ; 
collectively  they  form  an  important  and  valuable  chain. 

But  the  great  wars  which  saw  the  acquisition  of  these 
landmarks  on  the  ocean  road  as  well  as  the  greater  provinces 
of  empire,  saw  also  the  capture  of  other  more  isolated  spots, 
whose  history  has  little  connection  with  that  of  Britain  or  any 
of  her  colonies. 

Such,  for  example,  was  the  barren  rock  of  Heligoland, 
or  Holy  Island  :  three-quarters  of  a  mile  in  extent,  but 
gradually  giving  way  before  the  action  of  the  Heligoland, 
waves,  and  with  a  population  of  two  thousand  1807-90. 
fishermen.  At  present  a  summer  resort  of  German  tourists, 
it  belonged  to  Denmark  till  1807,  and  was  used  both  before 
and  from  that  time,  when  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  England, 
as  a  base  for  smuggling.  At  the  peace  of  1815  it  was  secured 
to  Britain  ;  but  its  history  is  almost  a  blank.  The  old 
Frisian  constitution  to  which  its  inhabitants  had  been  accus- 
tomed was  preserved  till  1864,  when  another  of  British  origin 
took  its  place.  Four  years  later  this  was  withdrawn,  and  all 
authority  was  vested  in  the  Governor.  Nothing  more  of 
interest  marked  the  eighty-three  years  during  which  it 
was  part  of  the  British  Empire,  and  it  was  exchanged  with 
Germany  in  1890  for  some  concessions  in  Africa.  From  the 
Enghsh  point  of  view,  Heligoland  was  useless  in  peace,  and 
dangerous  in  war ;  from  the  German,  its  acquisition  seemed 
at  the  time  a  satisfactory  step  forward  in  the  linking-up  of 
the  great  modern  Teutonic  Empire,  which  had  been  so  long 
divided  into  petty  conflicting  states,  but  which  from  the 
day  of  Rossbach  has  been  steadily  marching  forward  to  a 


276  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

federation  of  all  tlie  Grerman  settlements  in  Europe,  and 
which  in  our  time  lacks  only  the  Austrian  provinces  and 
the  Baltic  colonies  in  Russia  to  mark  the  completion  of  the 
pan-German  imperial  dream  of  which  Fichte  was  the  first 
and  the  most  eloquent  exponent. 

Another  island  acquired  in  the  Napoleonic  wars  was 
Ascension,  a  volcanic  rock  thirty-four  miles  square  in  the 
Ascension,  South  Atlantic  Ocean,  which  had  been  discovered 
1815.  \)j    the    Portuguese    in    1501.     At    first    named 

Conception  from  being  found  on  Lady  Day,  it  was  later 
called  Ascension  by  a  second  visitor  who  arrived  at  the 
island  on  that  festival  in  1503.  Nominally  a  possession  of 
Portugal,  it  was  a  convenient  place  at  which  passing  ships 
could  leave  any  malefactors  they  might  have  on  board  ;  but 
no  real  colony  could  be  estabhshed  where  only  ferns  and 
grasses  grew.  In  the  eighteenth  century  turtle  fishing  was 
carried  on  there,  and  it  was  occupied  by  the  British  in  1815. 
A  settlement  was  made  at  the  one  place  which  afforded 
anchorage,  and  the  little  town  which  rose  here  was  officially 
named  Georgetown  in  1830.  Since  then  it  has  been  used  as 
an  admiralty  station,  and  Darwin  compared  it  to  'a  huge 
ship  kept  in  first-rate  order.'  On  a  small  scale,  the  same 
pohcy  which  has  been  so  successful  in  the  greater  colonies  was 
followed  at  Ascension ;  roads  were  made,  plants  and  shrubs 
were  introduced,  and  the  none  too  abundant  supply  of  water 
collected  and  preserved.  At  Georgetown,  a  church,  a 
hospital,  and  barracks  now  exist :  and  the  population 
numbers  some  160  settlers  and  a  garrison.  If  it  cannot  be 
said  that  the  island  is  of  much  value  to  the  empire,  at  least 
it  might  be  a  source  of  danger  in  foreign  hands. 

We  next  come  to  almost  the  most  insignificant  inhabited 
spot  in  the  whole  British  Empire — Tristan  da  Cunha,  in 
Tristan  da  comparison  with  which  Ascension  seems  a  powerful 
Cunha,  1816.  state.  The  first  European  to  see  this  island  of 
sixteen  square  miles,  whose  sole  products  were  stunted  trees, 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       277 

brushwood,  ferns,  and  coarse  grass,  was  Albuquerque ;  and 
to  him,  wearied  by  a  long  sea  voyage,  it  appeared  a  '  land 
very  extensive  and  very  beautiful.'  That  he  was  mistaken 
may  be  shown  from  the  fact  that,  although  Dutch  and 
French  vessels  called  there  from  time  to  time,  and  the  Enghsh 
East  India  Company  thought  of  using  it  as  a  port  of  call 
for  their  vessels,  the  earhest  settlers  were  three  Americans 
in  1810.  Annexed  by  England  in  1816,  a  garrison  was  kept 
there  for  a  few  months  only  ;  but  when  this  was  withdrawn, 
a  corporal,  his  wife,  two  children,  and  two  other  single  men 
remained.  Such  was  the  beginning  of  the  colony,  which 
was  increased  later  by  some  stray  arrivals. 

Its  petty  annals  have  not  been  without  vicissitudes;  Many 
of  the  younger  men  have  emigrated  to  South  Africa,  or  taken 
to  the  sea  ;  and  owing  to  this  cause  the  population  has  fluctu- 
ated from  109  in  1880,  to  52  in  1893  ;  ten  years  later  it  had 
again  risen  to  75.  All  hve  in  one  township,  which  is  called 
Edinburgh,  on  account  of  a  visit  paid  by  the  Duke  of  that 
name  in  1857  :  and  a  hard,  perhaps  inadequate,  livehhood 
is  gained  by  breeding  cattle,  sheep,  and  donkeys.  But  in 
spite  of  the  rough  conditions  which  surround  their  existence 
the  inhabitants  have  on  several  occasions  refused  the  ofEer 
of  the  Imperial  Government  to  transport  them  elsewhere. 

The  system  of  rule  is  patriarchal,  and  Tristan  da  Cunha 
is  directly  under  the  control  of  England ;  periodical  visits 
are  made  by  vessels  of  the  navy.  These,  with  the  calls  of 
occasional  whaling  ships,  are  the  only  means  of  coromunica- 
tion  with  the  outside  world.  The  two  neighbouring  islands, 
named  Nightingale  and  Inaccessible,  are  uninhabited.^ 

More  important  in  point  of  size  and  population  are  the 
Falkland  Islands.  Discovered  on  14th  August  1592  by  John 
Davis,  called  Hawkins'  Maiden  Land  by  Hawkins  two  years 

*  The  fullest  account  of  life  on  this  island  is  contained  in  a  diary  of 
Three  Years  in  Tristan  da  Cunha,  published  in  1910  by  Mrs.  K.  M. 
Barrow. 


278  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEKSEAS 

later  in  honour  of  himself  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  they  were 
given  their  present  name  in  1670 :  but  nobody  thought 
Falkland  ^^  ^  Settlement  there  until  Anson,  in  the 
Islands,  account  of  his  voyage  round  the  world,  published 
in  1748,  remarked  on  the  convenience  of  possess- 
ing a  station  and  port  of  call  in  the  southern  Atlantic.  The 
project  was  abandoned  on  the  urgent  representations  of 
Spain ;  and  the  French,  with  some  of  their  people  who  had 
left  Canada  after  the  British  conquest,  founded  the  first 
Falkland  colony  in  1764.  They  were  soon  expelled  by  the 
Spaniards  ;  but  the  English  arrived  the  next  year.  After 
five  years  they  also  were  driven  out :  and  it  was  through 
this  high-handed  action  on  the  part  of  Spain  that  war  was 
threatened  from  London.  In  the  end  the  British  Grovernment 
backed  down ;  and  the  whole  afiair  would  have  long  been 
forgotten,  were  it  not  that  Samuel  Johnson  wrote  a  pamphlet 
in  their  defence,  while  Junius  attacked  them. 

The  islands  caused  yet  another  international  dispute 
before  they  came  finally  into  British  hands.  In  1820  they 
were  taken  by  the  republic  of  Buenos  Ayres  ;  but  eleven 
years  afterwards  the  settlement  was  destroyed  by  the  United 
States  as  a  measure  of  reprisal  for  some  wrong  done.  In 
1832  they  were  again  taken  by  England,  and  used  by  the 
Admiralty,  although  there  was  some  intention  of  converting 
them  eventually  into  a  penal  settlement,  in  accordance  with 
the  settled  policy  then  pursued  at  Downing  Street,  which 
held  that  the  first  use  to  which  every  new  colony  should  be 
put  was  as  a  dumping  ground  for  convicts.  From  this  fate 
they  were  saved  ;  in  1843  a  civil  government  was  instituted  ; 
and  since  then  the  Falkland  Isles  have  been  a  crown  colony, 
with  a  Governor,  and  Executive  and  Legislative  Councils  : 
surely  a  sufficient  apparatus  of  rule  for  a  country  whose  capital 
of  Stanley  has  only  some  nine  hundred  inhabitants,  and 
whose  population  altogether  numbers  little  more  than  two 
thousand.     In    1851    the   Falkland    Islands    Company    was 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       279 

formed,  in  whose  hands  nearly  all  the  trade  of  the  place  has 
been  concentrated  ;  the  chief  settlers  are  Scotsmen,  who  by 
continuous  hard  work  make  a  Hving  in  islands  described  by 
Darwin  as  '  undulating  with  a  desolate  and  wretched  aspect,' 
and  by  another  visitor  in  the  Challetiger  as  '  a  treeless  expanse 
of  moorland  and  bog  and  bare  and  barren  rock/ 

Nearly  all  the  British  colonies,  however  small,  reproduce 
in  essentials  the  constitution  of  the  mother  country ;  in 
many  cases  they  furnish  a  microcosm  of  the  south 
empire  by  administering  protectorates  of  their  own.  Georgia, 
The  Australian  Commonwealth  is  responsible  for 
various  groups  in  the  Pacific ;  New  Zealand  possesses  a 
whole  cluster  of  islands ;  Tristan  da  Cunha  guards  its 
two  neighbours  ;  and  the  Governor  of  the  Falkland  Islands 
is  in  Uke  manner  Governor  of  South  Georgia,  an  uninhabited 
tract  of  land  in  the  Antarctic.  First  seen  by  the  French 
voyager  La  Roche  in  1675,  it  was  visited  a  century  later 
by  Captain  Cook,  whose  account  of  it  was  graphic  but  un- 
inviting :  '  The  wild  rocks  raised  their  lofty  summits  till 
they  were  lost  in  the  clouds,  and  the  valleys  lay  covered  with 
everlasting  snow.  Not  a  tree  was  to  be  seen,  nor  a  shrub 
even  big  enough  to  make  a  toothpick.' 

Of  equal  importance  is  another  derehct  of  empire,  Gough 
Island,  which  was  probably  discovered  by  the  Spaniard  Diego 
Alvarez,  but  visited  by  Captain  Gough  in  1731,    QQ^gj^ 
and  claimed  by  him  for  England.     Still  considered    island, 
as  a  British  possession,  it  is  enough  to  say  that 
no  ship  ever  touches  there,  and  that  nobody  has  ever  lived, 
or  seems  likely  to  live  on  its  desolate  shores. 


280  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

CHAPTER  V 

THE  FINAL  BECKONING  :    1815 

With  the  escape  of  Napoleon  from  Elba  in  1815  began  the 
last  act  in  the  great  world-drama  which  gave  to  France  the 
Waterloo,  troubled  possession  of  Europe  for  a  decade,  and 
1815.  to  Britain  the  undisputed  possession  of  the  outer 

world  for  a  century.  Napoleon  reckoned,  and  he  reckoned 
justly,  on  the  respect  and  admiration,  if  not  love,  which 
France  bore  him.  He  knew  that  the  king  who  had  been 
set  up  in  his  place  was  but  a  puppet  of  the  diplomats.  He 
knew  that  the  army — his  army — was  discontented  and 
mutinous.  He  believed  that  they  longed  again  for  the 
victories  to  which  he  had  led  them ;  that  they  preferred 
even  defeat  under  him  to  peace  under  a  Bourbon.  And  in 
France,  the  army  often  decides  for  the  nation.  Napoleon 
landed  in  Provence  and  marched  without  opposition  to 
Paris.  Louis  xviii.  fled  at  once,  and  Europe  prepared  to 
renew  the  conflict. 

But  the  close  of  the  career  that  had  electrified  the  world 
was  at  hand.  The  revived  empire  lasted  for  a  hundred 
days  :  and  then  in  the  carnage  of  Waterloo  it  went  down 
for  ever.  The  man  who  had  risen  from  a  humble  family  in 
Corsica  to  be  the  master  of  a  continent  fell  before  the  coahtion 
his  vast  schemes  had  raised. 

The  place  destined  for  Napoleon's  last  years  in  captivity 
was  one  of  the  most  lonely  islands  of  the  world — one  of 
St.  Helena,  those  barren  rocks  that  a  visitor  from  another 
1^51-  planet  might  think  even  our  combative  humanity 

would  have  left  in  peace.  But  small,  barren,  and  unattractive 
as  it  was,  St.  Helena  already  had  its  history  as  the  outpost 
of  rival  empires.  Discovered  on  21st  May  1502  by  the 
Portuguese,  it  had  been  used  by  them  as  a  port  of  call  on  the 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       281 

way  from  the  Indies.  For  many  years  they  were  the  only 
visitors,  but  when  the  Enghsh  traffic  to  the  Orient  began 
to  grow  it  was  seized  by  our  East  India  Company  in  165L 
James  Fort,  or  Jamestown  as  it  has  since  been  called,  was 
erected  there,  being  named  in  honour  of  the  Duke  of  York. 
In  1665,  and  again  in  1673,  the  Dutch  took  St.  Helena,  but 
in  each  case  they  were  driven  out  after  a  few  months,  and 
from  that  time  our  possession  of  it  has  been  undisturbed. 

With  the  cessation  of  attacks  by  foreign  traders  its  history 
ceased  to  present  anything  of  interest.  There  were  the  usual 
quarrels  between  the  governor  and  the  chaplain,  the  usual 
semi-mutinies  among  the  garrison,  which  invariably  appear 
in  colonies  where  space  is  Umited  and  time  hangs  heavy. 
The  population  consisted  of  employees  of  the  East  India 
Company,  casual  settlers,  and  negro  slaves  :  in  1723  St. 
Helena  contained  500  whites  and  610  blacks,  a  number  which 
increased  steadily  but  not  rapidly,  and  generally  in  the 
same  proportion  of  colour.  In  subsequent  generations  the 
prevalent  custom  of  intermarriage  produced  a  mixed  class 
of  people,  who  remain  in  the  island  to  this  day. 

It  was  to  this  lonely  spot  which,  in  Darwin's  words,  rises 
abruptly  '  Hke  a  huge  black  castle  from  the  ocean,'  that 
Napoleon  was  banished,  to  eat  out  his  heart  in  captivity, 
vexed  by  the  unworthy  spite  of  his  jailor,  Sir  Hudson  Lowe. 
'  C'est  un  sot  personnage  que  celui  d'un  roi  exile  et  vagabond,' 
he  had  written  to  his  brother  in  the  days  when  Europe  lay 
at  his  feet :  and  now  that  in  less  than  twenty  years  his 
ambition  had  carried  him  from  simple  republican  general  to 
Emperor  of  the  West,  conqueror  of  Egypt  and  Palestine, 
victor  in  Rome,  Vienna,  Berhn,  Madrid,  Moscow,  Amsterdam, 
Brussels,  and  down  again  to  querulous  captive  of  his  inveterate 
enemy,  he  could  meditate  on  an  epigram  he  had  applied  to 
another,  but  which  in  the  end  applied  only  to  himself. 

For  nearly  six  years  he  lived  in  St.  Helena,  surrounded  by 


282  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

a  few  faithful  friends,  reading  and  studying  the  miUtary  history 
of  the  past,  or  dictating  records  of  his  own  campaigns  ;  the 
latter  almost  the  only  pleasure  now  left  him.  '  They  are  of 
granite  ;  envy  cannot  bite  at  them,'  he  exclaimed  once  when 
speaking  of  the  judgment  which  posterity  would  pass  on  his 
achievements  on  European  battlefields. 

On  5th  May  1821,  Napoleon  died  of  cancer  in  the  stomach. 
His  remains  were  interred  at  St.  Helena  ;  but  in  1840  they 
were  brought  to  Paris,  where  they  rest  fittingly  to  this  day, 
among  the  other  great  heroes  of  France. 

With  the  death  of  its  illustrious  captive  the  prosperity  of 
St.  Helena  seemed  to  vanish,  as  if  in  revenge  for  the  harsh- 
ness with  which  he  had  been  treated.  In  1834  the  island  was 
ceded  by  the  East  India  Company  to  the  nation,  when  it 
became  a  crown  colony.  But  it  had  only  been  useful  as  a 
station  for  saihng  vessels,  and  with  the  introduction  of  steam 
longer  journeys  could  be  made  without  putting  into  port;  and 
after  the  Suez  Canal  was  opened  it  soon  lay  altogether  out 
of  the  beaten  track.  Still  maintained  as  a  naval  and  till 
recently  as  a  military  station,  it  possesses  a  certain  strategic 
importance  :  as  a  commercial  settlement  its  use  is  practically 
negligible. 

The  battle  of  Waterloo  decided  something  greater  than  the 
fall  of  Napoleon.  It  was  the  end  of  the  world-struggle.  The 
The  End  of  ^^*  bitter  contest  between  the  great  powers  of 
the  World-  Europe  for  the  control  of  the  outer  world  ended 
struggle.  (definitely  with  the  capture  of  the  French  Emperor. 
It  had  begun  with  the  discovery  of  America  and  the  new 
route  to  the  Indies. 

For  a  century  Spain  and  Portugal  had  been  supreme. 
Then  the  rebellion  of  the  Netherlands,  the  defeat  of  the 
Armada,  and  the  insults  to  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  flags 
on  the  high  seas  marked  the  decay  of  the  empires  that  had 
aspired  to  universal  dominion. 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE       283 

In  their  place,  and  on  the  ruins  of  their  power,  rose  four 
great  nations,  France,  England,  Holland,  and  Sweden,  to 
dispute  the  prize.  The  latter,  as  the  head  of  a  great  Scandi- 
navian federation,  seemed  at  one  time  about  to  take  a  great 
part  in  developing  the  extra-European  lands.  But  her  material 
resources  were  small,  and  they  were  wasted  on  the  brilliant 
but  useless  exploits  of  her  royal  family  in  Germany  and 
Russia.  The  union  of  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway  was 
never  thoroughly  accompHshed,  and  the  possibility  of  a  new 
Sweden  overseas  vanished  under  the  stern  competition  of 
the  three  remaining  powers. 

Of  those  three,  Holland  was  for  a  time  the  most  successful. 
The  sailors  who  manned  her  ships,  the  citizens  who  directed 
her  commerce,  the  settlers  who  founded  New  Amsterdam  in 
one  hemisphere  and  Batavia  in  the  other,  procured  her  a 
magnificent  range  of  territory. 

But  the  great  trading  empire  of  Holland  was  only  too 
literally  a  house  built  on  the  sand.  The  dominions  at  home 
were  small.  They  were  constantly  threatened  by  the  full 
force  of  the  North  Sea,  which  had  already  destroyed  half  of 
them.  Not  less  dangerous  was  the  enmity  of  human  rivals. 
England  was  frequently  at  war  with  Holland,  and  a  large 
part  of  the  Dutch  colonies  soon  acknowledged  the  British  flag. 
France  was  likewise  covetous  of  the  goodly  heritage  on  her 
northern  frontier.  Louis  xiv.  laid  rough  hands  on  the  Nether- 
lands, but  was  beaten  back.  Under  Napoleon,  however, 
Holland  was  reduced,  in  fact  if  not  in  name,  to  a  mere 
province  of  the  French  Empire.  At  his  fall,  the  independence 
of  the  country  was  restored  and  guaranteed,  and  many  of 
the  oversea  possessions  were  given  back.  The  kingdom  is 
to-day  positively  greater  than  ever,  but  relatively  it  has 
declined,  and  its  share  in  the  world-struggle  was  merely 
passive  after  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  in  1713. 

There  remained  two  great  nations  to  dispute  the  universe 


284  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVEESEAS 

in  the  eighteenth  century.  The  contest,  indeed,  between 
France  and  England  was  not  new.  For  the  last  four  cen- 
turies of  the  Middle  Ages  they  had  been  rivals.  It  was  France 
that  sustained  the  shock  when  the  Plantagenets  endeavoured 
to  found  a  continental  empire.  It  was  the  French  who  finally 
drove  the  English  of!  the  European  mainland,  and  thus 
shattered  the  illusion  that  misled  all  our  rulers  from  WiUiam 
the  Conqueror  to  Queen  Mary. 

But  the  contest  for  Europe  was  hardly  at  an  end,  when  the 
two  nations  were  pitted  against  each  other  overseas.  French 
and  EngHsh  fishermen  were  already  ill-disguised  enemies  off 
the  coast  of  Newfoundland.  A  few  years  later  French  and 
English  merchants  were  bidding  against  each  other  in  the 
marts  of  Bengal ;  French  and  English  pohticians  were  nego- 
tiating against  each  other  in  the  courts  of  Indian  princes.  In 
Africa,  the  httle  settlements  of  either  nation  were  deadly 
rivals.  In  America,  the  colonists  of  Canada  and  New  England 
were  jealous  of  each  other's  success. 

The  Seven  Years'  War  brought  the  quarrel  to  a  head. 
Everywhere  outside  Europe,  England  was  victorious.  The 
French  were  driven  from  Asia  and  America.  The  colonies  that 
remained  to  them  were  small,  but  valuable.  Again  they 
attempted  to  build  up  an  empire  overseas.  Again  the 
Napoleonic  wars  gave  England  her  opportmiity.  Again 
the  French  colonies  fell  into  the  hands  of  England,  along 
with  many  of  the  Dutch.  And  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna 
in  1814  the  greater  part  of  all  these  territories  were  finally 
made  over  to  Britain. 

From  that  time  the  lead  of  Britain  in  colonising  has  never 
been  questioned.  France  has  created  another  colonial  empire, 
greater  and  more  prosperous  than  the  first ;  Germany  and 
Italy  have  entered  the  competition  for  overseas  territory  ; 
Russia  has  extended  her  sway  in  marvellous  fashion  over  the 
barbaric  regions  of  Central  Asia.     But  in  mere  size  the  British 


THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD-STRUGGLE        285 

Empire  is  by  far  the  largest.  Its  territories  are  indisputably 
the  most  fertile.  Its  system  of  government,  whether  demo- 
cratic or  despotic,  is  the  best  yet  obtained,  although  evidently 
not  the  best  obtainable.  Since  the  fall  of  Napoleon  the 
British  have  been  engaged  in  great  and  terrible  wars  in  all 
parts  of  the  world,  but  the  general  ideal  of  the  empire  has 
happily  been  peace  :  and  it  may  be  said  that,  while  England 
would  neither  have  acquired,  nor  kept  her  empire  had  she 
feared  the  appeal  to  the  sword,  she  would  also  have  been 
unable  to  develop  it,  in  so  far  as  it  has  been  developed,  had 
it  not  been  that  her  first  wish  was  for  peace. 

The  history  of  the  British  Empire,  so  far  as  we  have 
followed  it  at  present,  has  been  mainly  one  of  conflict,  from 
the  day  that  Drake  ventured  into  the  charmed  circle  of  the 
Indies,  till  the  day  that  Nelson  drove  the  French  out  of 
Egypt  and  off  the  high  seas.  But  we  have  still  to  follow 
the  progress  of  our  people  during  the  century  that  has  elapsed 
from  the  end  of  the  world-struggle  to  our  own  time  :  and 
the  latter  period  is  far  more  absorbing  and  of  far  more 
importance,  for  it  tells  of  the  foundation  of  British  institutions 
and  the  growth  of  the  British  race  in  all  parts  of  the  earth  ; 
it  speaks  of  the  energy  that  has  gone  to  create  great  states 
and  splendid  civiUsations  where  previously  the  wallaby  and 
the  dingo,  the  tiger,  the  leopard,  or  the  bison  have  roamed 
unchecked  ;  it  proves  that,  in  contact  with  native  races,  we 
have  endeavoured  to  deal  uprightly  and  wisely,  in  spite  of 
the  temptations  to  which  we  have  too  frequently  succumbed  ; 
and  it  shows  that,  wherever  our  people  may  be,  in  the  middle 
of  Asia,  in  the  deserts  of  Africa,  or  in  the  yet  waste  up- 
country  of  Austraha,  they  have  still  remained  true  to  the  old 
British  stock  whose  proud  boast  it  has  ever  been  that  they 
possess  Hberty  with  order,  and  a  high  standard  of  duty  with 
the  courage  to  do  it.  God  in  his  mercy  grant  that  the  future 
which  stretches  before  us  may  be  as  glorious  as  the  past ; 


286  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE  OVERSEAS 

that  we  may  neither  be  bHnd  to  our  opportunities  nor  unjust 
to  others  in  laying  hold  of  them ;  and  that  when  the  hour 
of  danger  comes,  as  assuredly  it  will,  we  may  not  be  found 
lacking  in  the  will  and  the  power  to  stand  firm  in  defence  of 
our  own. 


END  OF  VOLUME  THE  SECOND 


Printed  by  T.  and  A.  Constable,  Printers  to  His  Majesty 
at  the  Edinburgh  University  Press 


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